


When I see you again

by Rohad



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Changing the past, Death, F/F, Fighting, Gay, Lumity, Magic, Major character death(sort of), Time Travel, canon episodes reworked, paradoxes, past mistakes, we all know there will be a happy ending so relax
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-18
Updated: 2021-03-26
Packaged: 2021-03-26 19:42:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 27,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30111054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rohad/pseuds/Rohad
Summary: Everything had gone to hell and everything that ever meant anything to her was dust in the wind, the world was all but over. There was no fixing this.Not now anyway.There was only one thing left to do. One crazy plan that could very easily create different problems but she couldn't imagine it ever being worse. So really, what choice did she have? She had to go back.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda
Comments: 114
Kudos: 175





	1. One way out

The night was quiet and still as they moved through the woods under the cloak of darkness. The air was tense and they could only hear their own breathing and heartbeats as they moved, footsteps silent as the night that surrounded them. They had no delusions that they would remain undetected for long. There were sentries and magical sensing wards everywhere, which they carefully avoided with the help of Willow’s vines. They couldn’t be picked up by the sensors and could alert the small group to their presence around the castle and could then be easily destroyed. They could also take care of sentries that were caught unaware. A silent vine could silently slither up behind them and in a quick grip, snap their necks. They usually patrolled in pairs though and it was too dangerous to even attempt that unless they were sure they could get away with it without someone alerting the rest of the guard.

No, they needed to get as far as they could before they alerted the entire castle to their presence. It would happen eventually either way but their chances would be better if they could put that off for as long as possible. Everything hinged on pulling off this plan and they weren’t willing to take any unnecessary risks to its success.

Getting through the outer wall was easy with Gus masking them with an illusion after taking out the wards. 

They didn’t expect it to get them as far as it did, which was down to the second floor. Gus was sweating bullets as he kept the large-scale illusion up for as long as he could over the four of them. 

“Hold on just a little longer Gus,” Amity whispered in his ear as they passed through a dimly lit hall crawling with Emperor’s coven guards. He took a deep silent breath as they moved. They were forced to walk so as to keep themselves silent. The illusion would only cover them from sight. If they made any noise they would be detected immediately. Luz’s grip on her staff tightened as they moved, ready for the moment the illusion would drop and the fight would start.

There was no ‘if’ only ‘when’. 

They had been planning this for months, everything was set and Amity had perfected the spell, at least in theory. There was no way to know if it was going to work until they put it to practice. 

They had just reached the bottom floor when Gus began to lag and the rest of them tensed, knowing what was coming. The pale blue light that surrounded them began to waver and flicker. Luz laid a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. 

“It’s okay, Gus. You did all you could.” He nodded and dropped the spell. There were only five coven members in the hall with them but all it took was for one to scream before they could take him out for more to come running. Then the hall was lit up with bright magical light as spells flew through the air. Fire blazed across the walls and vines ripped up through the stone floor, sending huge chunks flying through the air before they wrapped around the enemy witches, snapping their necks or throwing them into the wall. 

“We gotta keep moving! Gus, do it!” Luz hollered over the din of battle and they took off in the same direction as before, cutting a path through the enemy as Gus created another illusion, shooting it up, where it disappeared through the stone ceiling.

Outside, an explosion of light lit up the night, alerting their allies outside that they had been discovered and it was time for them to do their part. Within a few minutes, the walls began to groan and rumble under the attacks now happening in full force outside.

While it did take some of the heat off them, the halls were still crawling with white-cloaked witches coming out of every nook and cranny to try and off them. One came close, a hair's breadth from blasting Luz when an abomination fist came flying up from the ground and smashed them into a pulp against the stone wall. 

“Thanks, mi amor!” Luz called, spinning her staff and throwing out several glyphs that erupted in jagged spikes of ice, impaling several nearby coven witches. 

“I always have your back.” Amity smiled before darting back into the fray. 

Another explosion rocked the walls and shook the ground beneath them as they ran down the stone corridors, flinging spells and glyphs behind them, maiming several Emperor’s coven members that were trailing behind them but more seemed to pour from every other hall they passed as they sprinted down the corridor. 

“They’re everywhere!” Gus grunted as they turned another corner. Every hall in the place looked the same and was a veritable maze of never-ending corridors.

“We have to slow them down and buy ourselves some time or they're just going to follow us there!” Amity barked. Willow and Gus following along behind them shared a brief look before nodding and skidding to a stop, spell circles already blazing to life. Amity and Luz slid to a stop, looking at the two over their shoulders. 

Yet more vines whipped out of the ground, bursting from the cracks in the stone to seize several white-cloaked witches in their grasp, squeezing them in an iron tight grip. The sound of cracking and crunching bones echoed off the walls, their screams swallowed up by the vines continuing to wrap around them. The hall was filled with bright blue light before two large, solid clones of a slither beast popped into existence and set upon the advancing witches. Luz raised her staff just as Amity began to draw a spell circle when Willow’s voice shouted back at them. 

“Keep going, we’ll cover you!” Willow's voice bounced off the stone and Luz hesitated, sharing a quick look with her wife before they nodded and turned to run down the hall. Much as she hated the idea of leaving their closest friends behind to fight the coven on their own, they were strong and she knew they would do whatever they had to buy them as much time as they could. Her heart still clenched in her chest though at the thought that she may never see them again. She knew what she had to do and they were all resigned to whatever fate may come of it. They had made that promise to each other and everyone else whose fate rode on this one crazy idea. All that mattered was accomplishing what they had set out to do. This was their last chance and was worth whatever the cost may be. Even if that cost was their very lives; they had no options left.

No one did. 

“Where is it?” Amity panted as they rounded another corner and all but flew down a flight of cracked and crumbling stairs that descended further into the depth of the Emperor’s castle. The walls shook once more, raining dust and bits of stone down on their head, making them squint as it fell into their eyes. Luz hissed to herself. There was blood dripping down her face from somewhere on her forehead from a hit she hadn’t been able to avoid but she didn’t have the time nor the forethought to even try and stop it. 

“It should be just down here!” she said as they approached a large set of doors at the bottom of the dim staircase. Luz didn’t even slow as she rammed into it with her shoulder. They gave under her weight sending her careening into a large open room. Empty, save for the large glowing portal door at its center. The white metal shaped like wings around it glowed and crackled with magical energy that radiated out through the pipes that hung in the air, stretching up into the upper levels of the castle. The whole room buzzed with power and the static feeling in the air pricked at her skin and made the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Her eyes zeroed in on the portal door at the center of it all. 

The yellow cat's eye that had haunted Luz’s dreams for the better part of the last ten years was no longer yellow but a bright crimson that seemed to give off a glow of its own as it stared back at her as though looking into her soul. 

“Found it… we found it!” Luz shouted and whipped around throwing several ice glyph papers and tapping her staff to the ground. Her palisman’s eyes lit up and the papers activated, sending a thick wall of ice up to cover the door before sliding the staff into its holster on her back. 

“That won’t last long…,” Amity mumbled as she hurried over to the portal, Luz hot on her heels. 

She examined it for a long moment, gold eyes scanning the magical monstrosity with a keen look. Luz was useless here and stopped for a moment to observe her in turn. Her clothes were torn and several long cuts on her cheek dripped blood down her neck. Her arm was probably the worst of it all and it hurt Luz to even look at it. From wrist to shoulder her left arm was a large, raw burn. Soot and charred skin making the mangled appendage almost unrecognizable and she knew it must hurt Amity unimaginably but still she never stopped, never blinked or waivered and despite the cataclysmic urgency in what they were doing, she couldn't help the swell of love and pride she felt. She knew without a doubt she couldn’t or wouldn’t ever know anyone stronger than her. 

“Luz!” Amity’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts as she came back to focus on the situation at hand.

“Lo Siento, mi amor. What did you say?” she asked and Amity sighed under her breath but didn’t seem angry.

“I said, are you sure about this?” she asked, face pulled up in a tight frown and Luz nodded.

“We don’t have any other options, Amity,” she mumbled, reaching out to take the witch’s uninjured hand in hers and giving it a squeeze. “Our time is up if we don’t do something now and it’s too late to fix it in _now_.” 

“I know…,” she mumbled. “I just worry that it won’t work… and if it does… how do we fix this?” she looked around as the castle gave another thundering shudder, causing more debris to fall from somewhere overhead.

“I don’t know…,” Luz mumbled, drawing Amity closer, careful of both their many injuries. “Anything has to be better than this… we can fix this together.” she smiled. Amity looked unsure. “Come on…,” she wheedled, squeezing her hand. “Say it.” she pressed and the corners of Amity’s lips twitched upward. 

“We can fix this together,” she finally mumbled, pink dusted her cheeks and Luz grinned. Even after ten years, she could make Amity that pretty shade of pink where everyone else was met with her stony, ice-cold facade. 

“Yeah we can!” she gave a final squeeze, leaning to a press a chaste kiss to her smiling mouth before letting go. “So, can you redirect the magic?” she asked, stepping back and Amity’s eyes swiveled back to the portal as she worried her bottom lip between her teeth. 

“I think… but I’ve never done it before, this was all theoretical till now…,” she hummed, glancing at the portal warily. 

“I know you can do it, mi amor.” Luz smiled at her but Amity didn’t seem so sure.

“But what if we…,” she started as the ground beneath them quaked violently, nearly throwing them off their feet.

“It doesn’t matter! If we do nothing the result will be the same as if we failed. We have to do this and do it now!” Luz cut her off and Amity tensed for a moment before nodding with a sigh and turning back to the portal. Her staff appeared in her hands as she closed her eyes and held up a finger, slowly, carefully drawing out a spell circle. The eyes of the dragon palisman atop it glowed as magenta light came into being. The crackling energy of the portal seemed drawn to it and Luz watched on bated breath as Amity drew the circle, drawing more and more of the electric blue energy into her own magic. When the circle was completed it seemed to pulse and twitch for an agonizing handful of seconds as the pink glow spread to the door and the red receded from the eye and slowly turned Amity’s signature shade of pink and then the energy seemed to stabilize, humming quietly again but with a less foreboding aura. 

Amity opened her eyes as Luz held her breath.

“Did it work?” she finally asked and Amity seemed to hesitate, finger still hovering in the air as though testing the magic. 

“I… I think so! The only way to know is to go through the portal and see -” Before she could finish the thought, an explosion rocked the room and suddenly everything was awash in bright white light and ice was flying through the air in little razor shards that even from here pricked Luz’s skin as she was thrown from her feet and slammed into the portals metal frame with a grunt of pain. Somewhere to her left, she heard Amity cry out and then nothing as her ears were filled with high-pitched ringing. 

When the light finally cleared away she blinked through her spot-filled vision as she slowly pushed herself to her hand and knees, scanning quickly for Amity and when her eyes landed on her she froze.

Amity lay still on the steps leading up the portal, a chunk of ice, jagged and sharp jutting from her chest, and her staff, snapped in two, lay at her side.

“No… No no no no no!” Luz jumped to her feet, still dizzy and tripping over her weak limbs but managed to scramble across the stone to drop at the witch's side. 

“Amity…?” she called gently, slipping her hand beneath her head, fingers tangling in her auburn locks. Slowly, gold eyes blinked open but they were hazy and unfocussed as they struggled to stay on Luz.

“Luz…,” she managed to mumble as a thin trail of blood began to drip past her lips and cold dread squeezed Luz’s heart in an iron grip.

“Amity…,” Her voice trembled but the crackling sound of magical energy drew her gaze to the door.

Belos, appearing just as malformed and warped as the last time Luz had seen him. Once white robes stained with blood and soot, torn in several places and pulled back over his shoulders to reveal his oddly twisted limbs. Arms too long and fingers curled up at all the wrong angles. His helmet all but a corroded mass of partially melted metal from which a pair of brightly glowing, crimson eyes peered back at her from across the room and she felt a shiver of fear run through her body as he slowly began shuffling across the room toward them.

A weak tug on her arm made her look back down at Amity.

“Go…,” she wheezed, more blood sputtering past her lips.

“Not without you! I…” Amity’s weak grip on her tightened as she stared up at her, eyes hardening even as the light within them dimmed.

“No matter what… remember?” she choked, voice petering out but her face stony and Luz sucked in a sharp breath, biting on her lip hard enough to draw blood. 

“I love you,” she managed to rasp out. 

The corners of Amity’s lips quirked upward and even if she could no longer speak, her lips tried and Luz could see it in her face before the light went out completely. With a choked sound, she snatched up the top half of Amity’s staff and jumped up, throwing out a glyph and creating an explosion of fire, halting the slowly advancing Emperor. 

When the flames cleared, the room was empty as the portal door slammed closed and the magical glow around it fizzled out. 

Luz landed hard in the dirt, looking up just in time to see the door shut and the portal vanished into thin air. 

She glanced around at the dark trees of the woods she now knelt in the middle of, cool grass under her fingertips and Amity’s palisman clutched in the other. It was dark but the bright moon glowed overhead.

Adrenaline and pain lanced through her all mixing together in a jumble as she whipped her staff from her back and took off. The Isles beneath her were familiar and not all at the same time but it was merely a background thought to all the ones jumping through her mind at a pace so rapid it made her dizzy.

The loudest and most prevailing one screamed louder than the rest, drawing out the agony clawing at her chest; for now. 

_‘Did it work?’_

She flew as fast as she was able, the wind whipping through her hair and making her cuts burn as she quickly approached the cliffs near Hexside, or at least where it used to be. Tears tried to push past her eyes but she held them at bay, if only barely; she didn't have time for tears yet. She stumbled over her feet when she landed, whipping the staff out from under her as she ran, breath coming out in ragged pants, she tore through the trees that tore back, branches catching on her clothes and scratching her face and arms, steps pounding against the ground but she never slowed. 

Not till she reached the treeline and skid to a stop just within the cover of the foliage. Her breath seized in her chest at the sight in front of her. 

“Well then, if that’s settled, may I have this dance?” 

Two, young witches, both of which she was intimately familiar with, began to dance, magic flaring up in the air around them. 

Her whole form trembled as she watched the two spin and twirl, an abomination rising up from the ground. The longer she watched the fight go on the weaker she felt till her legs gave out and her knees slammed into the dirt but she could feel none of it. She felt numb as she watched the oh, so familiar dance. One she had replayed so many times in her memories that she knew every step, jump, and twirl of it by heart. Shiny eyes locked on a familiar and yet unfamiliar witch with mint green hair and auburn roots as she landed in a flourish in the other teen's arms. 

A sharp ache shot through her chest and tears finally began to drip from her eyes, mixing with the dried blood on her face. Suddenly, the space between her fingers, where others so often laced with hers, felt empty. The void between her arms felt cavernous and barren of the form usually wrapped in them, of which she knew every soft curve and sharp line of just by the feel of her hands. The warmth, now beyond her reach but a memory

In a bright flash of light, a large pink flowered tree burst into being, lighting up the night and flashing across her face, casting sharp shadows. 

She choked on the cry that ripped out of her throat and dropped both staves to clap her hands over her mouth as cheering filled the night air and muffled her sharp breaths. She hunched over, pressing her face into the dirt while sobs wracked her body in great shuddering convulsions. 

_‘It worked, Amity…,’_ she thought distantly as she sobbed into the dirt, eyes clenched shut againt the torrent of tears. _‘I’m back…’_


	2. Going Home Again

The night was calm and still, the moon lit up the forest and ocean that curved around the Owl House, blanketing it in a soft cocoon. The distant screeches and squawks of griffins and other bizarre and deadly creatures were the only sounds to occasionally break the chilled night air. It was weird not to hear cicadas or see lightning bugs at this time of year. Though the spark flies that were natural to the Boiling Isles were similar.

Even if they did set everything they touched on fire. 

With King’s help, she had managed to avoid being set ablaze, which wouldn’t have been the first time, while capturing a few in a jar.

They sat on the floor next to her sleeping bag, casting a soft dim glow in the room as they bounced against the glass, trying to escape their glass prison. 

Luz glanced down at her phone one last time before clicking the lock button. She sighed to herself as she set it aside, and continued staring out the window. She knew that fighting a giant eldritch horror that could shapeshift into your worst fear would be tough but she was utterly exhausted, physically and emotionally. Especially now that she had finally found the courage to talk to her mom, even if she hadn’t really faced her.

She hadn't even been able to face Grom's grotesque mimicry, let alone her real mother. No, Amity had to jump in and save her from her fear, and thus face her own, the one thing she had been terrified to do. She still felt bad about that. All that posturing that she would be her ‘fearless champion’, and then she had been the one running out of the school with her tail tucked between her legs and a hulking, dripping, Lovecraftian nightmare, hot on her heels. She leaned back in the sill and frowned up at the moon. 

Some ‘fearless champion’ she’d turned out to be. 

She cast a long, sullen look over the sparkling stars above before closing the window and crawling down from the sill to change.

It was hours later, as the moon was slipping below the horizon and the sun peeking over the other, that a figure came limping out of the woods to stand at the edge of the trees.

Luz gazed at the Owl House in silence while the sun slowly rose behind her, casting its bright rays over the once familiar, eclectic house that had been her home for so long. One that had long since been lost to her. It had been razed to the ground five years ago when the fighting had really ramped up and the slowly, ever maddening Emperor had brought an iron fist down on everyone who dissented against his growing chokehold over the Isles. Like her, Eda, and Lilith. Looking at the place, tall and bright in the morning sun made something inside her stir. To see it again, as it had once been and not a smoldering pile of ash and rubble made the tiniest spark of joy flicker to life inside her. 

She knew what she had to do, she just wasn’t sure how to go about doing it. She needed to stop him and being armed with the knowledge of everything that was set to happen over the next few weeks gave her the advantage, which begged the question of what to try and change and what should she leave alone? She didn’t have the slightest clue what messing with the past might do to the future. She recalled the many books and movies she had seen as a kid that depicted all kinds of scenarios. ‘The butterfly Effect’, she remembered especially, maybe just coming here had changed everything and she wouldn’t have to do a thing?

She could change everything or nothing. Maybe everything was meant to happen and no matter what she did the events of her time were set in stone, unchangeable, and fated to be no matter what she did. 

Her fist wrapped around the broken top half of Amity’s staff, clenched it so hard her knuckles turned white and her jaw tightened, teeth grinding together as pain lanced through her chest so sharply it nearly brought her to her knees. 

She refused to believe that. She had to be able to stop it, somehow. She could only move forward from here.

She was never meant to do this alone but she had no choice now. Everything hurt, her body and her heart. The jagged end of the broken staff may as well have been lodged into her chest for all the agony it caused her and the gold band on her finger had never felt so heavy. For the first time, since Amity had slipped it on her finger, it felt like a shackle rather than an anchor. Tears started to gather in the corners of her eyes but she angrily wiped them away. 

She didn’t have time for tears and mourning. Not when the opportunity to negate the hollow feeling that rang in her chest was now laid out before her. No matter how much it felt as though she had been gutted from stem to stern. The empty place at her side was a constant reminder that she had to fix this, for everything that had been lost to get here. 

The plan had always been for the two of them to puzzle this out together, but Luz was on her own now though, and as much as that hurt, she had to carry on, she would just have to go off script and find help elsewhere. 

“No matter what…,” she mumbled her wife’s final words to herself as she looked down at the staff and the intricately carved dragon perched regally atop it. She held it aloft and in a shimmer, the wood turned to flesh and the golden scaled dragon shook itself to life, blue mane shaking out.

She gazed down sadly at the small, majestic creature as he looked back up at her and Luz could feel the sorrow coming off him in waves. She reached out and ran gentle fingers over his horned head and he nuzzled into the touch, sapphire blue eyes closing as he sought her comfort.

“I miss her already too, buddy.” Her voice cracked and she cleared her throat as heat roared up behind her eyes against her will. “We have to do this. For her.” The palisman made a deep rumbling noise before flying up to perch on her shoulder and with a sigh, she dropped the broken staff in the dirt before turning her eyes back to the house. 

Speaking of those she had lost…

She slowly approached the house just as Hooty blinked his eyes open with a yawn. Smacking his beak before his beady, black eyes landed on her and in the blink of an eye he had stretched out to meet her halfway across the yard.

“Hoot! Who goes there!?” he cried out and Luz couldn’t help but smile. She never thought she would miss the house demon so much.

“A friend, Hooty,” she said and he narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously. 

“If you’re a frieeeend… What's the password? Hoot!”

Luz snorted to herself.

“Bug…” she smirked and the demon wriggled excitedly. Luz watched him fondly and Calliban rumbled a low growl from her shoulder, the small dragon had always shared the same dislike for Hooty as his master. 

“That is the password! Okay! Hoot, come on in!” he stretched back into the door and it flung open for her. She chuckled softly under her breath as she walked up to the doorway and glanced into the familiar living room, pausing in the doorway. Everything felt so familiar and foreign all at once. The same worn couch with its framed wanted poster of the infamous Owl Lady herself hung above it. The various knick-knacks that covered the wall all pulled at something in her chest as her gaze roved over them. She managed to shake herself from her reverie long enough to look around for something, or rather someone else, in particular.

“Hello?” she called. A commotion from the kitchen made her move forward into the room, steps heavy and stilted. It had felt like so long since she had walked through this living room and in many ways, it had been. The wave of nostalgia that washed over her was almost overwhelming as a litany of familiar sights and smells washed over her. 

She stepped into the kitchen and quickly glanced around before her eyes landed on a familiar, pajama-clad back end, sticking out of the open fridge. She wanted to speak but her tongue refused to move, glued to the roof of her mouth. 

Finally, Eda stood and closed the fridge door, and turned, spotting the stranger standing in her kitchen. Her glass dropped from startled fingers, splattering appleblood across the tiles and seeping into ridiculously fluffy slippers.

“Who the hell are you and how’d you get past Hooty!?” she growled, spinning a finger and quick as lightning, her staff appeared. She leveled it at Luz, who held up both hands.

“Is that how you greet all your apprentices?” she asked, finally able to make her mouth work. The older witch blinked, brows furrowing.

“Look, I dunno who you are, but I only have one apprentice and…” Her eyes flickered over her, landing on the distinctly rounded ears, and stopped. “Who are you?” she asked carefully. 

“Luz, Luz Noceda…,” she answered simply and Eda’s eyes narrowed but something flashed across her face. Suddenly she slammed her staff on the ground and wooden replicas of Hooty shot from the floor to wrap themselves around her, dragging her across the room and tying her to one of the kitchen chairs.

She grunted as they pressed against her bruised and injured body and Calliban growled and hissed from her shoulder, his tail whipping furiously. Then Eda was in her face, gold eyes glaring at her.

“Start talking, and if I don’t believe you…,” she left the threat hanging in the air as her constraints gave a painful squeeze, making her wince but she nodded.

“I came back from the future.” 

Whatever Eda had been expecting, it probably hadn’t been that judging by the stupefied look on her face. 

“Prove it,” she said and Luz frowned, thinking.

“Ask me anything you want. Things I could only know if I am who I say I am,” she offered and Eda frowned but stood up straight, thinking.

“What year is it? Who’s the Emperor?” she barked and Luz frowned.

“You’re checking if I’m Luz, not if I have amnesia…,” she deadpanned.

“Oh, right…” The wild witch tapped her chin thoughtfully. 

“What was the first spell I taught you?” she finally asked and Luz scoffed.

“The light spell,” she answered and Eda’s frown deepened. 

“Too easy… how did you learn it?” she asked instead.

“It was during a boiling rain storm…,” Luz started, remembering that night with striking clarity. The first time she had done magic. “You were overtired from putting the barrier over the house and passed out, forgetting to take your curse potion…” 

Eda’s face spoke clearly of her surprise, not expecting the answer.

“You transformed and tried to kill me and King.” she grinned. “I was able to see the glyph in my phone’s cracked screen and we used it to stun you long enough to shove a potion down your throat.” she smirked up at her former mentor whose mouth was hanging open in shock. “Then I learned the ice glyph on our trip to the knee after I royally ticked off that slitherbeast with Am-” The name hitched in her throat and she swallowed it painfully. “Ticked off that slitherbeast with a training wand fire spell… should I go on?” 

Eda limply fell into a chair across from her and the bindings came undone as she stared at her, utterly gobsmacked.

“What the hell…How are you...?” she waved a hand at her.

“I came back from ten years from now,” was the simple answer.

“You’re from the future?” The witch asked and Luz nodded. “Why?” her eyes narrowed and Luz frowned. 

“Because everything goes to shit,” she said and Eda’s brows disappeared into her hair at that. 

“Should I go get… well, you?” she asked and Luz shook her head.

“No, not yet… I need to talk to you first… alone…,” she said and the witch blinked at her before Luz launched into her tale. By the end of it all, Eda was sitting in her chair looking back at her with wide eyes.

“Well... shit,” was all she said and Luz snorted.

“Yeah, that’s a way of putting it,” she grumbled as she absently ran her fingers through Calliban’s mane.

“How does he even get the portal?” Eda asked and Luz frowned. 

“I… can’t tell you,” she said and Eda’s face scrunched up and Luz knew she was about to start arguing but she cut her off. “Eda, I trust you with my life but I need you to trust me. I know that if I told you everything, you would try and change things but I need to be careful about what I change, I want to stop Belos but there are some things I don’t want to change,” she explained and the older witch frowned and was silent before her eyes flickered to Luz’s left hand on the kitchen table.

“Like that?” she motioned to it. Luz glanced down and knew she was talking about her wedding ring. Her jaw tightened and she nodded.

“Yeah, like that.” 

“If you never made it back to the human world, I take it you married a witch… and I’m gonna say… the littlest Blight?” she asked and Luz’s head whipped up to look at her, mouth agape and Eda grinned, knowing she had hit it right on the head.

“It really was always that obvious while I was being oblivious, wasn’t it?” she asked and Eda snorted. 

“Oh yeah, I noticed that last night.” She nodded with a grin. “So how is your fellow grom queen?” she asked and Luz’s hand on the table curled into a fist. 

“Gone,” she managed to spit out and Eda’s grin fell like a stone. “She…” The words clogged in her throat as water welled up in her eyes and Eda’s face turned somber. 

“You don’t have to say it, Luz,” Eda spoke quietly, voice soft and gentle. Luz shook her head.

“She got me here. We were supposed to fix this together… Now I have to do it alone...”

“You don't have to do it alone, Kid. The place you described… it sounds like a hell hole. Wasn’t I already helping you in your own time?” she asked and Luz pursed her lips and nodded.

“You were… till you died,” she said and Eda’s eyes grew wide. This, Luz, didn’t have as much trouble talking about, not anymore at least. She’d had five years to come to terms with the loss of her mentor and mother figure. Amity’s loss was still a bright, fresh wound, blood gushing from it freely and only just barely held at bay beneath a bandaid of urgency that would not last. 

“When things got rough and we started swaying more people against him, Belos went after the resistance leaders… Me, you, Lilith…

“Lilith?!” Eda balked and Luz couldn’t help but grin. 

“Yeah, good ‘ol Lily. She fought even harder after you were gone…They razed this place to the ground, but you took most of them with you…” she grinned ruefully at the older witch who smirked and crossed her arms. 

“If ya gotta go down, take 'em with ya,” she snorted and Luz nodded.

“You said that then too…,”

“Are you going to tell… well, Luz?” she asked and Luz sighed as she nodded. 

“Yes, but even less than I told you. Only what she has to know to understand why I might ask her to do or not do things. The last thing I need is for her to go around trying to change things on her own, maybe making it worse…,” she mumbled and Eda snorted. 

“Based on what you told me, I don't think it could be worse...”

“Probably not but I really don’t want to find out.” She looked up at Eda meaningfully and she nodded. 

“So what do you need from me?” she asked and Luz slumped back in her chair bonelessly.

“For now, just a place to lay low and rest… I have to talk to her first though…” She glanced up at the ceiling, just below her teenage bedroom on the second floor. 

“Maybe a shower first, so you don’t scare the kid?” Eda suggested and Luz looked down at herself. Her clothes were torn and burnt and she herself was covered in cuts, blood, and ash.

“Yeah…, probably.” 

“Welp, you know where it is,” Eda said as she stood. “Mama needs some Appleblood. It's not every day you hear how you went down in a blaze of glory,” she mumbled as she walked over to the fridge. 

Luz carefully stood, her body stiff and tired but she had things to do today before she could rest. She walked back into the living room and pulled off the holster holding her staff on her back and gave it a gentle squeeze. The tawny owl atop of it rippled to life in a shake of feathers and hooted quietly at her. She scratched the side of his head with a gentle finger. 

“No, I’m not okay, Mochuelo but I don’t have much time to not be anything but okay. I just want to take a shower and sleep for the next two days. We do have a little time at least and I still need to explain some things to my young counterpart before I can get some sleep,” she mumbled as she ran her finger through his feathers. He hooted gently and she smiled as she felt Calliban rub against her neck. “You two hang out here while I shower.” She set them both on the couch before hurrying as quickly and quietly up the stairs as she could. 

She groaned under the hot water, watching, dead-eyed as the water ran down the drain in swirls of pink and black. It burned her cuts but she was all but numb to the pain. She was just so tired and she was only just beginning. She watched the stained water flow down the drain and knew, beyond any doubt, that some of that blood, was Amity’s. Pain rippled through her and she bit down on it. 

Not now. She didn’t have time. 

She glanced down at her left hand. She would be better off taking it off and hiding it…

But she couldn’t. Her ring and Calliban felt like the only things she had that still tethered her to Amity here in a time where the love of her life did not exist, not as she knew her. It could cause her problems but she couldn’t bear to take it off.

She finished her shower and dug around in her bag. When Gus had given her the enchanted bag with its little pocket dimension for her sixteenth birthday, she had thought it was cool but hadn’t seen much use in it - how wrong she had been. It wasn't too long afterward that they began spending days at a time hiding in the wild Isles countryside, ambushing bands of Emperor’s Coven witches and she was able to store food and clothes for extended periods of time, as well as other supplies. The thing had seen better days though. It was worn and scuffed but well-loved and she ran her fingers over it gently. 

She wondered if Gus and Willow had made it out. She doubted it but she hoped. That was just one more loss to weigh on her mind, another burden to sit heavily on her shoulders and remind her why she didn’t have time to grieve and mourn. Her time was borrowed at best.

She dug through it and pulled out some fresh clothes and dressed quickly, her short hair still damp plastered to her scalp but she’d live. She opened the door and jolted to a stop as a younger her, still dressed in her pajamas, stared up at her, hand outstretched out for the handle and King hanging off her shoulder

“Uh…” was all Luz was able to say as she stared down at her younger counterpart.

The younger girl stared back up at the familiar-looking stranger coming out of her bathroom and her eyes zeroed in on the woman’s rounded ears and familiar face and gaped. 

Eda chose that moment to peek her head up at the top of the stairs.

“Oh, good, you’re awake. Luz, meet Luz. Now, come down for breakfast.” With that, the witch disappeared back down the stairs. 

~ ~ 

“So… you’re me… from ten years from now?…” Luz stared at her older self from across the table and she nodded. “That’s so cool…,” she mumbled around a mouthful of horror wheat cereal. 

“Cool? That’s crazy!” King piped up from his chair. 

The older Luz grimaced as her hand on the mug of hot appleblood tightened. 

“It isn’t cool,” she said as softly as she could, though it still had an undeniable bite to it. She was trying her damndest not to snap at her younger counterpart. She didn’t understand yet but that wasn’t her fault. “I came back because there wasn’t any other choice…” 

The teen and tiny demon looked at her curiously and she sighed tiredly. 

“When I’m from, Belos has destroyed everything, including the human world…” 

“What!?” Luz spat out her cereal and the older woman nodded. “How could he…?” 

“A mistake I made,” she frowned. How many times now had she gone over that in her head? If only she hadn’t gotten in over her head and trying to get that stupid hat, she never would have been captured and caused the chain of events that had led them here. She shook her head and focussed on herself sitting across the table. “Belos opened the portal to the human world on something called ‘the day of unity’; it's when the demon and human realms pass through each other, merging, for a brief period. He opened the portal and used magic to suck the magical energy out of the human world…”

“Wait! There isn’t any magic in the human world though!” Luz interrupted.

“Yeah, they’re all boring there,” King crossed his arm.

“Hush, Mr. Snuggles.” Eda scolded. 

“There is, it’s just latent, it’s what gives the human world its life. Have you ever looked around at the Isles, like, really looked? Outside the Isles themselves, everything is barren and lifeless. Magic is what creates life and the magic of the Titan is what makes life here on the Isles,” Luz explained to the amazed teenager and demon. Even though she had heard it all already, Eda was still amazed by it. She had been a wild witch all her life and it was still new information to her. She’d just accepted that magic was nature, she’d never looked into it too hard. 

“So… he…” King mumbled, starting to put the pieces together. 

“He sucked all the life from the human world… destroying it.” Luz frowned down into her cup. 

“But… Mami…” Luz looked at her with wide eyes and her older counterpart nodded sadly. “Why…?” 

“Power, more magical energy so he could strengthen his hold over the Isles… but the magic in the human world is different I guess and over time it started to… warp him. Physically and mentally. He became paranoid and pretty soon even the most minor of transgressions were met with…,” she paused, glancing over at her younger self. “... strict punishment,” she finally settled on, rather than telling the almost fifteen-year-old that executions had become a daily spectacle. 

“We have to stop him!” Luz slammed a hand on the table. 

“Yeah!” King threw up his paws and the older of the two humans frowned.

“That’s why I’m here, I’m going to try and fix this. And you, don’t do anything unless I tell you to.”

“But…”

“No, I don’t know what my coming back here can and will change, I have to be careful about what I tinker with because I could just make things worse. You don’t know everything that has happened, you don’t know what to avoid. So just trust me when I tell you to do, or not do something, okay?” 

They stared at each other for a long moment before the younger girl sighed and nodded, turning back to her cereal. 

With that out of the way, Eda decided now would be a good time to interject herself.

“Look, Luz…” Both humans turned to look at her and she frowned. “Okay, that’s gonna get confusing really quick… We have to call one of you something different…” 

“You can call me Lucia if it helps,” the older human suggested. 

“Oh, that’s what Mami said she almost named me when I was born,” Luz piped up and Lucia nodded, smirking. 

“Alright, Luz.” Eda turned to her apprentice. “You need to let her do what she has to, don’t interfere with anything okay, Kid? As much as going down in a fighting blaze is my style, I’d rather avoid it, okay?”

“Okay… wait, you die!?” she yelped and King turned to look at her with wide eyes. 

“According to Lady ‘Dire News’ over there, yeah.” Eda nodded, jerking a thumb at Lucia, who snorted, rolling her eyes. God, how she’d missed Eda and that dry as desert sand personality. 

Luz stared quietly into her bowl as Lucia stood, stiff muscles protesting every movement. 

“I’m gonna go lay down for a while…,” she grumbled.

“Wait a second,” Luz stopped her and she glanced at her younger self over her shoulder. “How did you get here, like how did you go back in time?” she asked and Lucia froze, frowning to herself.

She could feel Eda’s eyes boring into her worriedly. 

“Our friends got me here,” she said simply and Luz seemed to accept the answer but before she could ask anything else Lucia quickly stalked from the kitchen and plopped herself down on the couch. With a tired sigh, she laid back and closed her eyes. She was vaguely aware of Eda’s voice somewhere to her left.

“I’ll go clean out a room for ya” 

She hummed in response. 

Unconsciousness came quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i lied. Just take chapter 2 already! I reused the girls' palisman's because i loved them but this isnt connected to Moonlit Masquerade in any way.
> 
> Thanks to RainbowBuddy for Betaing this.


	3. Familiar faces

Lucia slept all Saturday, that night, and through most of Sunday morning before finally pulling herself into consciousness. She rolled over and grumbled, hand reaching out for a familiar figure to pull close and bury her face in auburn hair that always smelled faintly like the Boiling Isles equivalent of lilac. She felt around and found nothing and cracked her eyes open to stare at the dusty wooden floor and piles of human junk that sounded her in one of Eda’s spare rooms she cleaned up so Lucia would have a place to sleep.

The space beside her was empty and cold. The frigid shock of air shot a bolt of sharp clarity through Lucia's gut as she remembered the events of the last few days and that now, all-too-familiar, ache that she had been carrying around returned in full force as the fingers of her outstretched hand found only blankets and gripped them tight as the emptiness throbbed and pulsed in her chest. She sighed quietly to herself as she laid there, eyes adjusting to hazy light filtering into the room from behind the curtains.  
She laid there, eyes half-lidded, and felt that familiar burn begin to build up behind them. She let the tears slip out in slow rivers down her cheeks.

Calliban, curled up in a tight coil by her head, slowly unwound himself and walked over, his tiny talons clicking on the wooden floor as he stood level with her face and butted his horned head - somewhat painfully - against hers, as if sensing her distress. She wouldn’t be surprised if he could.

Amity had always had a certain sense of when she was upset, no matter how well she hid it. The little lizard nuzzled against her face and Lucia sniffled and reached out to pet him.

“Thanks, Calliban,” she mumbled thickly. She knew he missed her just as much as she did. She took a moment to compose herself and wiped at the tear tracks on her cheeks as she finally, slowly, pushed herself up. She needed to get up, if for no other reason than the hunger she now realized was gnawing at the pit of her stomach. It had been quite some time since she had eaten, now that she thought about it. She, Amity, Gus, and Willow had all shared dinner before leaving for what might have been their final mission.

For at least one of them, it had been.

Pushing it to the back of her mind, she pulled herself up and yawned, wiping away the remnants of her tears with the back of her hands. Calliban gravely took his place on her shoulder as she finally stood and ventured out into the house.

It was quiet as she padded down the stairs to the kitchen. It was empty and she briefly wondered where Eda was but had learned a long time ago that the most powerful witch on the Isles came and went as she pleased, doing all manner of things. One just had to learn to live with Eda’s drifting ways.

She dug through the fridge before discovering leftovers of some sort. She hadn’t the slightest clue what it was, but she was hardly in a position to be picky.

She was halfway through scarfing them down when a loud commotion outside made her look up.

“Why do I have a distinct feeling… that it's me…,” she hummed as she carried her food out into the backyard where, sure enough, Luz, Gus, and Willow were casting magic back and forth, practicing their spells for each other.

“You control the way the plant grows with specific intent but you have to leave it some wiggle room too, it’s a living creature,” Willow was explaining to Luz as they laid out some plant glyphs. Lucia watched them silently as she continued eating. A wave of nostalgia rolled over her. She found that happening a lot, as she watched her memories play out in front of her like a bizarre school play.

It was strange, for sure, but also… comforting. Seeing them. Gus and Willow, and knowing she had a chance to fix this for them, for all of them. Take back what had been done to them.

Fix her mistake.

No matter how many times everyone insisted it wasn’t her fault, Lucia knew better. If she had been less impulsive and took a minute to really think about what she was doing, she never would have been captured by Lilith, and Eda never would have used up all her magic to save her. Had she been reasonable, she wouldn’t have had to go to the castle and save her from petrification by making a deal with the devil; trading the portal for Eda’s life and, though she hadn’t known it at the time, the lives of everyone in the human world and the untold many in the demon realm.

Lucia wasn’t sure which fate was worse. Those who had died to the mad Emperor, by him and fighting him, or those who continue to live in a world threatened by the constant fear that one misstep would be your last, would put you on the chopping block.

Every day had been a fight and some were more stressful than others but she’d had Amity and their friends by her side to always help make things better, to help pick her up when it felt too hard to carry on. How many hours had she spent curled up in Amity’s arms after Eda had died and they discovered the broken and burned remnants of her home? More than she could remember. Now she had to pick it all up; for them this time.

She finished her breakfast and leaned back against the wall, arms crossed as she watched the three witchlings practice. Calliban watched them from her shoulder, tail whipping lazily back and forth.

Eventually, Luz noticed her and jumped up, grinning.

“Lucia!” she called as she trotted over. “You’re awake!”

“Yeah, well, can’t sleep forever…,” she grumbled, running a hand through her mussed hair. She could just tell it was sticking up at a bunch of odd angles. Amity always told her she had the most ridiculous bedhead she’d ever seen. Which made her snort, since that was coming from a woman that looked like an angry, frazzled, slitherbeast when she first got up in the morning. The corner of her lip twitched but fell just as quickly at the pang of sorrow that radiated out of her chest at the thought. She did her best to shake it off for the moment and turned her attention back to the three witchlings in front of her.

“So, I'm sure these guys need no introduction...” Luz grinned as Gus and Willow hurried over after her, looking up at the other human with open wonder and awe.

“So you’re…,” Willow started.

“From the future?” Gus finished in a quiet, hushed voice, eyes wide as he stared up at Lucia in absolute amazement.

She blinked before turning to Luz and frowning.

“You told them?” she asked, though it wasn’t really a question.

“Should I….not have?” she asked quietly, shoulders rising up to her ears as she hunkered down under the older human's gaze and Lucia sighed.

“It’s fine, I don't think it will have much bearing on the things I actually came back to change…,” she soothed and Luz’s shoulders sagged with relief.

“Can you tell us anything about the future?” Willow asked curiously, peeking up at Lucia from above the rim of her glasses and Gus nodded eagerly, grinning. Another pang, no less sharp than the first shot through Lucia. She really missed her friends in a moment like this.

“Nothing that you’d actually be interested to know…,” she shrugged, crossing her arms.

“Do I ever get my human bucket?” Gus finally asked and Lucia blinked at him before bursting into laughter. Of all the things to ask, she wasn’t sure why she expected anything less from Gus.

She really missed them.

“Ha, Yes, Gus. You do get your bucket.” She grinned as he pumped a fist.

“Yes!”

“Oh, do I learn any really cool magic later?” Luz asked and Lucia snorted.

“Depends on what you mean by ‘really cool’…,” she said, cocking a brow at her younger self.

“Like… shooting fire from my eyes or something…,” she trailed off as Lucia laughed.

“No, no, I never did learn that, but there’s always tomorrow I guess.” She grinned and hummed thoughtfully. There was probably no harm in showing them a few of her spells, she would learn them eventually either way.

“Well, let's start with something simple.” She held her right hand up to the witchlings to show them her palm. There, in black ink, was a glyph. Two circles, one inside the other connected by four tiny lines in the corners and a triangle in the middle of the center circle.

“Ooooh,” Luz looked at the tattoo. “What’s it do?” she asked excitedly and Lucia grinned.

“Hey, Hooty! Open the back door for me, will you?” She called the house demon.

“Hoot! Sure thing!” the shrill voice called back as the back door flung open. Lucia squeezed her fingers to her palm and the glyph lit up white as she held out her hand. A clatter sounded in the house before a staff came flying out the back door, straight into her open palm. She grinned, giving it a twirl before she set the end on the ground.

“That’s so cool!” Luz bounced excitedly.

“How did you do that?” Willow asked as they looked at the staff.

“There’s a corresponding glyph inside my staff and they attract each other,” she explained, “I can’t call it to me like most witches, so we came up with this. Actually, you helped me come up with it.” She turned to Willow with a smile, who pointed back at herself, surprised.

“I did?”

“Yeah, I didn’t wanna carve into poor Mochuelo here. So you shaped the wood inside the shaft to be a glyph,” she explained.

“That’s really advanced and precise magic…,” Willow trailed off and Lucia grinned.

“You’re a really powerful witch.” she shrugged, making the girl flush.

“Is Mochuelo your palisman?” Gus piped up and Lucia grinned, glancing at her staff. The wood rippled and the tawny owl flapped its wings, giving himself a shake as bright, golden brown eyes gazed down at the three of them from atop the staff.

“This is Mochuelo,” Lucia introduced and the owl hooted at them before fluttering over and landing on Luz’s shoulder. He hooted quietly at her and her eyes widened.

“I… I understood him…I never understand Owlbert!” she mumbled in awe.

“That makes sense. After a palisman is created its life force is entwined with your soul, he’s a part of Lucia, and since you two are the same person…” Willow shrugged, glancing between the two humans.

“That’s a palisman too, isn’t it?” Gus motioned to Calliban, sitting curled around her neck. Lucia nodded.

“This is Calliban…,” she said, reaching up to scratch his head with her free hand, a growl rumbled out of his throat and a puff of smoke shot out of his nostrils.

“Wow, palisman only let people who are really, really close to their owners touch them usually. Who does he belong to?” the boy asked and Lucia froze. Should she tell them the truth? She thought quickly and decided it wouldn’t hurt and it would only look suspicious of her if she kept things from that that really didn’t matter.

“He’s Amity’s,” she answered simply, mentally congratulating herself for being able to utter her wife’s name without the painful hitch in her throat, making all three look up at her, surprised.

“Amity’s?!” they all shouted and Lucia nodded.

“Why do you have Amity’s palisman?” Willow asked, her eyes narrowed, though it seemed more from confusion than anything else.

“She sent him back with me to help…” In a way, that was a lie, Amity may not have sent him but she knew that her wife would have wanted Luz to take him with her, to look after each other now that she could not.

“Why didn’t she, or any of us, come back with you to help?” Willow frowned and Lucia felt a familiar, painful, melancholy begin to settle over the levity she had allowed herself for the moment.

“They… couldn’t…,’ was all she said and offered nothing more on the matter. She couldn’t and didn’t want to. They at least seemed to notice the somber look and aura that had fallen over their future friend and after everything Luz had told them decided it was better to drop it, even though they knew they were clearly missing the full picture.

“Can you show us some more magic?” Luz asked and Lucia seemed to snap out of her thoughts. She hummed and reached into one of the many pouches on her belt and pulled out a single card and flipped it around to show them a glyph that Luz had never seen before. She smiled and tapped it; vanishing.

“Whoa!” Gus slapped his hands to his cheeks. “A masking illusion, and a really good one!”

Luz reached out to touch the space where Lucia had been and found nothing but air.

“Whoa, that's really cool…” Before she could say anything else, an invisible hand reached out and flipped her hood up over her head covering her eyes. “Hey!” she shouted as disembodied laughter echoed through the yard.

“Okay, rude, but still really cool…” Luz mumbled, flipping her hood back down just as Eda and King flew into view on Owlbert.

“Ah, the nerd brigade is in my yard…” the older witch grumbled as she touched down and stood, King, peeking out from her hair. “The big kid, still asleep?” Eda asked with a frown and Luz beamed at her.

“No she’s…,” before she could answer Lucia reappeared at Eda's side, making the witch jump and King shriek.

“How the hell did you do that?!” she snapped and the other witch chuckled.

“Magic.” Lucia winked and pulled her free hand from her pocket, tossing up a handful of blue and green confetti into the air, bits landing in the older witch’s hair as she glared at her, A piece landed on King’s nose and he sneezed, head shaking. She half expected to hear a familiar voice somewhere at her side, scolding her for making a mess with her antics but it didn’t come and that hollow feeling returned, making her grin fall. Eda at least seemed to notice the shift in her face and only grumbled as Mochuelo flew off Luz’s head and returned to his place atop her staff, reverting to his wooden form. Calliban rumbled in her ear, sensing the shift in the woman’s mood.

“You’re up now and we need to talk,” the older witch said seriously and Lucia frowned but nodded.

“Should I...?” Luz started but Eda shook her head.

“No, stay out here and… play in the dirt or whatever kids do…” She waved her off as she walked toward the house, Lucia tight on her heels. Luz grunted in disappointment as they retreated into the house.

Lucia laid her staff on the table and plopped herself into a chair as Eda set her bag on the counter before turning to the other woman.

“So, what’s your plan, Kid?” she asked without preamble and Lucia sighed.

“I need to talk to Lilith, she was instrumental in the resistance and if I can talk sense into her now, rather than after the fact, it will be that much easier to stop the thing that started this,” she said and Eda cocked a brow at that.

“I can’t imagine for one second that my straight-laced sister would turn on the Emperor…,” she grumbled. Lucia bit down on her tongue. She hadn’t decided yet how much she should tell Eda and what should be left for Lilith to tell her herself.

“Trust me, she has her reasons but you should hear them from her, not me,” she said and Eda mumbled something under her breath.

“Well, good luck getting her to listen to anything you have to say…,” she gruffed but Lucia just smiled.

“Don’t worry about that. I know just what to say to her,” she assured but Eda didn’t look convinced.

“If you say so,” she mumbled as she started pulling things out of her bags.

Lucia glanced out the window into the yard where the three teens had resumed practicing their own magic as Willow grew a plant that was shaped just like Luz’s face, and suddenly, she remembered what tomorrow was.

The first day of Grudgby season.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to split this up r it would have been way too long.
> 
> Thanks as always to RainbowBuddy for Betaing this for me.


	4. In Memoriam

“I’m so excited for my first grudgby season!” Luz squealed as she stomped down the stairs and came barreling into the kitchen where Lucia and Eda sat sipping appleblood from mugs, Calliban sitting on the table nibbling on a plate of thornberries as King tore apart a muffin with unbridled ferocity. 

“Ahh, grudgby season is the best,” Eda sighed wistfully. “You know, I used to play back in my gory days.” 

“You mean ‘glory days’?” Luz asked as she sat at the table and started pouring herself some cereal. Lucia snorted into her mug.

“No, she doesn’t,” Lucia smirked at Luz as Eda went on, lost in her reminiscing. 

“I was unstoppable on the field!” She waved an arm across the table, almost knocking over the cereal in her way. “I had the best moves and the best cheats.” She grinned at the two humans, wiggling her eyebrows at them. Lucia rolled her eyes at the sense of deja vu washing over her. Though, strangely, she remembered this conversation happening at Hexside… maybe she was remembering it wrong? She shrugged it off as Luz read their mentor the Riot Act on cheating and Eda scoffed.

“What do you humans know with your goody-goody attitude? If cheaters never prosper, why was I the star player?” she asked smugly, jerking a thumb to herself

“Can’t reason with crazy,” the two humans said at the same time and Eda scoffed at them.

“Okay, I’m ready to go to school!” Luz jumped up after putting away her cereal bowl. 

“Alright, gimme a sec…” Eda hummed.

“Actually, do you mind if I take you to school, Luz? I wanted to get some things in town, so I’m heading that way anyway.” Lucia turned to the teen, who lit up at the suggestion. 

“I don’t mind!” she turned to look at Eda, who shrugged. 

“Fine by me, I think I’m going to take a trip down memory lane…,” she hummed to herself as she took a sip from her mug and stood from the table before grabbing a surprised King by the scruff of his neck and disappearing into the living room. Lucia and Luz shared a bemused look and shrugged.

“Welp, let’s go!’ Lucia jerked her head toward the door as she stood, pulling a long, violet, and gold-trimmed cloak around her shoulders and clasping it closed at her throat before reaching down and scratching Calliban on the head. 

“You stay here, we’ll be back later,” she said and the dragon rumbled something in reply that made Lucia roll her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, it’ll be fine, Mom.” she waved a hand at him. “Let’s go, Luz!” 

“Sweet!” Luz grinned as she followed the woman out the back door as she pulled her staff from the holder on her back and hopped on, Luz clambering onto it beside her. 

“We’re off!” Lucia grinned as they took off, flying away from the house and up over the Isles. 

Luz watched the Isles pass below them in a blur of ruddy crimsons and muddy ochres as the air whipped through their hair. She turned her eyes back to Lucia. 

It was really weird. Remembering that the older woman was, in fact, her, just ten years older. She wondered what the future was like, outside the ‘humanity is destroyed and everything is a post-apocalyptic world’ thing. Did she and her friends still spend their free time together, you know, when they weren’t fighting a despotic ruler? Where did she live? Lucia had said that the Owl House had been burned down after Eda…. She really didn’t want to think about that. Maybe the less she knew about the future Lucia wanted so badly to change, the better. 

“What are you going into town for?” she asked instead.

“Potion stuff, I need to brew something…,” she said with a casual shrug. 

“Oh, you can make potions?” Luz asked and Lucia smirked.

“Are you not taking potions as one of your tracks at school?” she retorted, glancing over her shoulder at her.

“Fair point.” she nodded and Lucia chuckled. “I think I have an easier time with potions than most of my other classes…” she frowned. “The classes are all geared toward people who can actually do magic…,” she grumbled.

“I know it’s tough sometimes, being the only human, not being able to do magic the same way as everyone else, but you can do it. So long as you keep working at it, you do it,” Lucia assured her and Luz beamed back. 

They touched down the courtyard of the school, the gothic facade decorated with all the lavish glam and fanfare that always heralded Grudgby season.

“I’m so excited!” Luz grinned as she hopped off the staff and Lucia smiled. She knew exactly what today would entail and kept her mouth carefully closed. There was nothing about today she wanted to change. She still really wished she could have socked Boscha in that big, third eye of hers but considering what ended up happening to Boscha in her time? She could let all of that go and forgive. Even this Boscha, brat that she was, had earned that forgiveness. 

Her forgiveness was bought with sacrifice. 

“I’ll swing by after school to watch,” she said.

“Watch what?” Luz asked as she turned back to her but Lucia just winked before taking off without any other explanation. 

“Welp, that wasn’t ominous at all,” Luz hummed as she watched the older witch fly off in the direction of Bonesburough before turning and running into the school. If something bad was going to happen, Lucia would have told her. 

Probably... 

Lucia wondered if she shouldn’t have said anything at all but knowing Luz, and she was pretty sure she did, she would forget all about her little off-handed comment before she even made it to her first class. 

She had other things to do right now. She needed ingredients for a very specific potion. They should all be easy enough to get and she may need it when she finally got a chance to talk to Lilith, which she figured would be soon. She knew for a fact that Lilith would attack the Owl House with a group of coven members early in the morning just over a week from now... and be utterly decimated by Hooty. Just after that would be her best time. When the witch was beaten and alone. True, she’d be pissed off but, really, all the years Lucia had known Lilith, she had always been a little pissed off about something. 

She knew how to navigate an angry Clawthorne though. 

With that thought in mind, she hurried on to the market. It had been a while since she’d been in school but she still remembered when they got out and she had plenty of time before classes ended.

She flipped up her hood to cover her ears and hopped to the ground, sliding her staff into its holster as she peered around the market. It was bright and bustling with people and vendors all yelling and talking to be heard over each other and the din of people moving about the streets.

She knew she had gone back in time, that had been the entire point of the plan, but standing here in the middle of the bustling market - one that was loud and crass and full of life and not one that was dead and barren with people too scared to come out of hiding to sell their wares, it really felt like it. 

Everytime she turned around, the stark contrast of the past and the future slapped her in the face, causing such a visceral whiplash that it left her breathless and stunned. She spent a good while just walking around the market after picking up the ingredients she needed for her potion, simply watching all the people go about their lives. 

Life on the Isles was just so different from the time she had come from. Trade was done via roving caravans. It was too dangerous to stay in one place for long, lest you invite the attention of guards who would come and ‘inspect’ your wares. Which really meant stealing or destroying whatever they wanted because Belos was too far gone to even think of controlling those beneath him, let alone care about it. All that mattered to him was that the people fell in line.

She walked around before grabbing and eating a notdog as she simply sat and watched the people passing by. Outside of a few battles, it had been a long time since she had seen such a large gathering of people just… at peace. 

At least as peaceful as the Boiling Isles ever were anyway.

It was almost surreal after so long. She must have lost track of time because the next thing she knew it was almost time for school to end so she jumped up and grabbed her staff. Shoving the rest of the questionable meat substance into her mouth as she took off flying back to Hexside.

True, she knew how the game would go, play by play. Though, she conceded, it was possible that she had forgotten some of it over the last decade. Lucia had ended up being an avid Grudgby fan all her years at Hexside. Especially after Amity rejoined the team in their second year. Ever the faithful and supportive girlfriend, Lucia had never missed a single game. She always made sure to be front and center with Willow and Gus, cheering her on. 

She’d worn Amity’s grudgby jacket till the thing had become worn and threadbare. It had been heartbreaking when Amity had made her retire it to the garbage because of all the stains and tears in it. She’d fought the good fight and hid it under their bed for a while but Amity had eventually found it and forced her to get rid of it. 

_“It has to go…”_

_“But I love this jacket!”_

_“Luz… it’s missing half a sleeve, has a huge tear from when you fell off Hooty and it has a… strange odor…” Amity wrinkled her nose. Luz hugged the tattered leatherman to her chest like a treasure and frowned at her fiance._

_“But…”_

_“I don’t even know why you’ve hung onto it this long, you haven’t worn it in over a year!” Amity huffed._

_“You gave it to me…,” she said cradling it like a cherished child. “After you won the championship against Epidermis High. You said it was lucky and that I ‘could use all the luck I could get’ remember?” she grinned and Amity scoffed but a smile pulled at her mouth._

_“I remember but it still smells and you don't wear it anymore…,” she reminded and Luz pouted. Rolling her eyes, Amity leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her cheek. “We’ll get you a new jacket, honey, but this one has to go.” She pulled it from Luz’s limp grip. “It’s making the closet smell.”_

_“Fine…” Luz grumbled and was rewarded with another brief peck._

Her jaw clenched as the ache in her chest returned. It never really went away but it did dull at times; like when she was distracted or busy, but it was always there, lurking in the background. A constant pressure in her chest and a distinct hollow feeling in all the empty spaces the witch had once filled. The gaps between Lucia’s fingers, where Amity’s fit like puzzle pieces; the junction of her neck and shoulder, where the soft, auburn hair tickled her nose as she nuzzled against Luz’s neck. If she closed her eyes, she could still feel the faint tickle of warm breath on her skin. 

She clamped down hard on those feelings as the school came into view. She knew what was about to happen and she couldn’t afford to be overly emotional when it happened. 

She veered off to the left and landed in the woods, not too far from the school's main entrance, and slid her staff into its holster as she moved towards the edge of the treeline and stopped. She could see Luz, Gus, and Willow sitting on the steps and talking amongst themselves, covered in paint and graffiti. She snorted as Willow yelled something and then Principal Bump went walking by, saying something to them that she couldn’t hear and it had been too long to remember. 

She stopped short and waited. She didn’t have to wait more than a few seconds for it to happen, just as she remembered.

_Amity._

A girl with minty green hair, oh so familiar and yet not at the same time, went walking by and it felt like Lucia’s throat was swelling shut as she stood in the shadows of the trees and watched the girl who would become her wife whip around as Luz trotted over, calling her name. Her fingers twitched at her sides and the ache returned in full force, throbbing in her chest with every painful beat of her heart. 

_Amity._

Not the Amity she had snuggled up in bed with only a handful of days ago, but one that was just as familiar. The one she had fallen in love with all those years ago. 

She reached up and laid a hand on the tree, the rough bark beneath her fingers scratched and bit at her skin, helping to ground her as her mind swayed violently despite her body remaining frozen in place. She had seen the girl the night she arrived but her mind had been so bogged down by... other things that it hadn’t really registered. But now? Three days into widowhood, it was all sinking in that her wife truly was gone and this girl before her, while the same, was somehow different. Someone else's. 

Not hers; but Luz’s. 

Grinding her teeth furiously and wincing at the sharp pain, she watched the girls from the cover of the trees. Even as the full weight of her loss settled on her shoulders like jagged boulders, she couldn’t help the rueful, grimace of a smirk that pulled at her lips when Amity’s face turned red as she rapidly rattled off an incoherent string of words.

Titan, how had she ever been so oblivious? How could she not see what was right in front of her, turning red as a tomato as she spoke?

“I’m… not putting anything down…”

Lucia snorted, closing her eyes and digging her fingers into the bark, as pain flashed behind her eyes sharply. 

Oh, how she missed that.

Amity never did get the hang of her human colloquialisms and over the years, Lucia had made a game of using new ones every chance she got just to see what reaction she would get out of the witch. 

_She stuck the spoon in her mouth and hummed before nodding._

_“Oh, that’s good, amor. I dig it.”_

_Amity’s face scrunched up into that annoyed look that always came before a scolding and Luz could only barely keep from grinning, knowing it._

_“You’re not. Digging. Anything!” She threw up her hands and Luz couldn’t help but burst into laughter._

Lucia sucked in a sharp breath and settled herself as best as she could before forcing her eyes open in time to watch Luz give her rousing speech. She smirked as Luz turned to Amity, remembering what was coming. 

She shook her head fondly as she watched Amity turn appleblood red before turning and tearing across the courtyard at top speed. Then she frowned, watching the girl disappear.

She knew why she had been so willfully oblivious, of course. She had figured that out a long time ago. Being the resident school weirdo and outcast hadn’t exactly done wonders for her confidence. She couldn’t believe anyone could feel the way Amity felt about her, so she’d been willfully blind to the most obvious of signs for months, and months. Right up until the moment she couldn’t ignore it anymore, and, in some sudden fit of courage, Amity had grabbed her ears, pulled her close, and kissed her one early fall day under their Grom tree. 

Her fingers curled, nails biting into the tree’s rough bark painfully, tearing gouges in its once unmarred surface at the sudden agony that accompanied the memory of their first awkward, fumbling, glorious kiss. Something that had never failed to make warmth and adoration blossom in her chest before. 

Until now.

Now, it just hurt.

She shook herself as she finally forced her feet to move and started through the trees towards the back of the school where the grudgby field was. Amity had been… was, a lot of things, but subtle had never been one of them. At least, not where her feelings for Luz were concerned. 

She took another shuddering breath and shook her head, trying to clear away the turbulent emotions swirling within. They did not dissipate but they did soften. 

She pulled a masking glyph from one of her pouches and, with a quick tap, vanished. 

She didn’t want to distract them from their practice.

She shook her head and snorted to herself as she watched them go at it, after Luz had finished explaining a ‘montage’ to them.

She watched as Willow and Gus flew through the air, catapulted by the thorn vault.

She had a lot of regrets about things she did as a kid, and while this wasn’t one of them, she still cringed internally as she watched. She sat at the top of the bleachers and watched as Luz trudged up to plop down on a lower level sadly. 

Lucia sat, watching and waiting. She didn't have to wait long before she saw her.

Amity.

Standing off to the side, watching Luz quietly, looking unsure for a long handful of minutes before she started forward toward her.

Luz never saw her coming ‘til she was standing right next to her.

“Tough practice?” 

Lucia turned her gaze up toward the sky, trying to tune out the distantly familiar conversation but some of it still got through to her no matter how hard she tried. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She wanted to come and watch the game and this moment that had proven so pivotal in their relationship. She knew it would be painful in ways but she had underestimated just how painful it was going to be. 

The next time she opened her eyes, Luz was down on the field, running and screaming as flaming grudgby balls flew through the air and Amity took off running toward the greenhouse.

“Come on, Luz. Dodge,” she mumbled to herself as she watched her younger counterpart run and weave between the flaming projectiles.

“Ahhhhhh!” 

Lucia snorted, looking up to see the rest of her merry band arrive in time to save her young self from certain immolation. 

She leaned forward, elbows on her knees and chin in her hands as she watched the gameplay out, just as she remembered, but just as Willow was riding through the air on the thorn vault, she turned and scanned the field, and sure enough, there was Boscha, digging through the grass and emerging victorious with a wicked grin, the rusty smidge in hand. 

She watched Luz scoop Amity up in her arms and a painful twinge in her chest made her stand and hurry away from the field back towards the school. Once out of sight, she deactivated her glyph and became visible again.

She wandered along slowly, lost in thought. There had been nothing about today that she needed, nor wanted, to change but she also wanted to make sure that her presence hadn’t affected it and she was pleased to note that it hadn’t, not in any way she could tell. Everything had gone pretty much as she remembered it. She frowned to herself. Amity had always had a much better memory than her, she would have been able to say for certain…

She wasn’t though… and Lucia would just have to trust her own memory. 

“Hey, Lucia!” A voice called, making her jump and she turned to find Luz, trotting over her to her, sluggishly, Amity cradled in her arms. She sucked in a sharp breath and calmed herself. 

_‘She's not the same, she's Luz’s Amity,’_ she reminded herself.

“How long have you been here?” 

“I was watching the game.” She smiled down at the girl, trying to keep her eyes on Luz but she couldn't help the brief flicker to Amity. Brown caught bright, curious gold before immediately turning back to Luz. “An impressive effort… ‘til Boscha found the rusty smidge…” She grinned as Luz’s face contorted in annoyance.

“That is the stupidest…!” Luz began to rant.

Amity, face still flushed and leg throbbing as Luz held her aloft, had her eyes now locked on the tall stranger, Lucia, standing in front of them. With her cloak and staff, she knew the woman in front of them was a witch.

Tall and lean with a soft but well-defined jaw and, oh so familiar, brown eyes and... round ears? A human? She didn’t think her face could possibly get any redder today, but she could feel it turning molten as she stared up at the woman, especially when a wicked and charming grin broke out across her face in response to something Luz had said and she quickly averted her eyes, cheeks burning. Apparently, Amity was just cursed to find all humans attractive.

“Oh! Amity!” Luz turned to her with a bright grin, breaking her from her moment of panic over one human for another. “This is Lucia… she’s… well…” 

The older human cut her off quickly.

“Explain it to her later and not here, Luz. Her leg is probably killing her. Get her to the healers.” Lucia nodded toward the school. “I’ll see you at home.” The older witch said before pulling her staff from her back.

“Oh, right!” she took off again towards the school and Lucia watched them go. Before Luz turned the corner, gold eyes peered at her curiously from over Luz’s shoulder.

Lucia let out a shuddering breath and quickly hopped on the staff and headed home.

Eda and King were in the front yard when she touched down, pulling down some ramshackle goal posts.

“What happened here?” she asked as she looked around, sliding her staff back into its holder.

“Eh, not much…,” Eda said nonchalantly and Lucia cocked a brow but she had learned long ago that sometimes it was best not to question the things that Eda did. 

“Right… I need to brew something, are you using the kitchen?” she asked and the older witch shook her head.

“All yours, Kid.” she waved a hand and Lucia nodded, hurrying inside to the kitchen. Calliban was looked up from his place curled up on the couch when she walked by and followed her quickly, perching himself on her shoulder. Her staff rippled and Mochuelo gave himself a shake before joining them on her other shoulder as she pulled off the holster and cloak, laying them on the table. 

“Hey, boys.” She smiled at them as she set her things down on the counter and hurried upstairs to where she knew Eda kept all her potioneering books and found the one she needed. She had made this potion several times before. A simple truth potion. They used them all the time on captured coven members early on when they had been trying to figure out what Belos was up to. When everything had boiled down to constant fighting and guerilla warfare they had fallen out of use, so she was a little rusty on the exact amounts she needed. 

She trotted back downstairs, flipping through the book, and wandered back into the kitchen. Calliban rumbled quietly in her ear and she paused.

“Yeah… I saw her today, she’s fine,” she said quietly and he rumbled again. “You’ll see her soon, I promise,” she soothed the scaly lizard. Mochuelo chirped in her other ear and she snorted. “You can see her too, now will you both let me work!” she huffed, amused, as she flapped her hands at the palisman, who flew over to perch on the table where they could watch her, growling and chittering to each other. She rolled her eyes and felt the tug at her lips. 

It felt like being home again.

Standing in the kitchen, mixing potions for the coming battles with their palisman chatting or arguing with each other in the background. The only thing missing was a familiar pair of arms winding around her waist and a sharp chin settling on her shoulder to ask what she was doing. It had happened so many times that if she concentrated, she could still feel it. 

She paused what she was doing and stood there, staring down at the counter, lost in memories. The chattering at the table stopped as both palisman turned to look at her, feeling the shift in her aura. 

A loud commotion outside broke her from her state and she shook herself, going back to prepping her ingredients as Eda, King, and the kids all piled inside the living room, talking excitedly. 

“Hey, Lucia!” Luz grinned as she came jogging into the kitchen and started digging through the cupboard before pulling out a kettle.

“Hey,” she mumbled back as she watched Luz from the corner of her eye zip around the kitchen making tea. 

“I took Amity to the healers and she’s fractured her shin but they were going to patch her up and then she was going to come over to hang out with us.” The girl was practically vibrating with energy as she moved around and Lucia watched her with knowing eyes. 

She had never been able to say for certain when she started having feelings for Amity. It had felt like they always existed, ever since their misadventure in the Bonesburough library on the night of the wailing star and had only grown more intense over that long-ago summer. What she’d thought at Luz’s age to be an intense friendship, had been so much more. She’d just been too preoccupied and insecure to realize that her intense desire to be close to Amity could be anything else.

Luz paused, looking at the kettle in her hand.

“Does she even like tea?” she mumbled to herself. 

“She loves scaremint tea,” Lucia mumbled as she poured a little vial of bright orange liquid into Eda’s potion pot on the hotplate.

“Ooh, thanks!” Luz grinned as she dug through the cabinets. “I guess you two hung out a lot in the future?” Luz asked casually as she pulled out the container of the tea Lucia mentioned. The older witch pursed her lips as she stared into the bubbling pot. 

“Yeah, you could say that…,” she said quietly. That was one way to characterize dating for four years and married for six. 

“I’m glad, Amity is a lot of fun to hang out with… I mean, she’s kind of scary… but nice!” 

Lucia grit her teeth and stirred the liquids in the pot, humming under her breath.

“Since she sent her palisman back with you I guess you two must be close, right?” Luz asked as she looked up at her. 

“Luz...!” Lucia snapped, turning to her. The girl flinched back, frowning, and Lucia bit her tongue, taking a deep breath. “I… I really need to concentrate on this, okay?” she asked softly as she could manage. 

“Oh… okay.” Luz nodded and once the kettle whistled, grabbed it and disappeared back into the living room. 

Lucia took a long, deep breath and stepped back to let the mixture simmer for a while. She heard the front door open and calls of: Amity! Followed by excited chatter. 

She hid in the kitchen for the better part of an hour before taking the potion off the heat and carefully pouring it into a bottle with the cork out to cool. 

She was sat at the table, flipping through her book when Eda appeared in the kitchen entryway. 

“You doing okay?” she asked in that uncharacteristically quiet tone that Lucia had seldom heard as a kid.

She nodded silently.

“I like to hide away from any kind of chummy social gathering myself, but the kid is worried about you and she explained everything to the future Mrs. Kid... You aren't going to be able to hide from her forever…” 

Lucia winced at that.

She knew that, of course. After the grudgby match, Amity started hanging around the owl house a lot; she wasn’t going to be able to avoid her.

It was just…

“It's hard…,” she muttered, looking up and Eda, who was looking back at her in that pitying sort of way. 

“To be honest with you, I can't even imagine how it must feel… have you even had a minute to… I dunno, grieve, since you got here?” she asked awkwardly. Emotions had never been Eda’s strong suit. Not the soft, gooey ones anyway. 

“I don’t have time for grief,” she bit out. She didn’t want to talk about this right now, or ever, really. “I’ll come be ‘sociable’ though,” she grumbled, She left Calliban and Mochuelo napping on the table as she picked up her book and trudged into the living room.

“Lucia!” Gus and Willow greeted her with bright smiles and Luz grinned. Amity, sitting between them looked at her with wide-eyed amazement. Simply glad to have figured out her instant attraction to the older witch; it was Luz after all. 

“Hey,” she forced a smile onto her face and walked over to sit on the floor near the couch but as far away from Amity as she could. 

“Done with your potion?” Luz asked and she nodded. 

“Yeah, I’ve come to be ‘sociable’.” she air quoted, glancing at Eda, who rolled her eyes from her spot in the kitchen doorway. 

“We were just telling Amity about how you came from the future,” Willow said and Lucia’s eyes flickered to her briefly.

“It… sounds awful…” Amity said quietly and Lucia snorted.

“That’s one way of putting it,” she snorted. “I can’t tell any of you much, so, please, don’t ask.” She looked between them and they nodded. 

Instead, the conversation returned to grudgby and the look on Boscha’s face when her friends had asked Willow to join the team. They occasionally turned to Lucia to ask her for her opinion but for the most part, she returned to her potions book, sitting open on her knees, and carefully studying some other useful sounding elixirs. She got lost in all the potions and barely heard Eda’s gruff voice call out. 

“At least sit up and read, my back hurts looking at you,” Eda gruffed and Lucia snorted. 

“Pfft, you sound like my wife...,” Lucia mumbled as she flipped the page of her book but did sit up. 

“WIFE!?” Luz suddenly yelled, making her jump, and then Lucia realized she had said that out loud. All eyes in the room were drawn to her left hand and finally took notice of the gold band wrapped around her ring finger. She quickly curled her hand into a fist and drew it back, under her right. 

“I’m married!?” Luz slapped both hands to her face as she gazed, amazed and starry-eyed at her older counterpart. 

“Whoa!” Gus grinned and bounced excitedly. 

“That’s awesome,” Willow said, looking at the older human in awe. The swiftly hidden look of devastation on Amity’s face was one Lucia should have expected but it still stung her painfully and her eyes darted quickly back to the other witchlings as they began asking questions.

“Is she a witch?” Luz hurried to ask. 

“What’s she like?” Willow asked, leaning forward.

“Do we know her?” Gus chirped right after.

Amity stayed curiously quiet, not that Lucia noticed, as she did her best not to look at her as the rest of the witchlings shot off rapid-fire questions about the one thing she really did not want to talk about. 

Eda frowned, watching Lucia’s shoulders slowly rise up to her ears, and could see the tension building in her body. 

“I can’t answer any of that… for the obvious reasons,” she spoke carefully, trying to keep the emotions clawing at her throat out of her voice and the trembling out of her hands as she clenched her left hand in her right. She was, mostly, successful.

“But I gotta know…!” Luz bounced excitedly. Her? Married? She couldn’t believe it! “Where did you meet at least?” Lucia grit her teeth.

“School…” she mumbled reluctantly as she snapped her book closed, if for no reason other than so they wouldn’t see the shaking of her hands. Her whole body was trembling but they were too excited to notice. 

“Are we classmates?” Luz asked right after. 

“Luz… you take all nine tracks, you’re classmates with everybody.” Willow laughed.

“Oh, true.” She nodded. “Well..what about…?”

“Luz, I think that’s enou-” Eda started but was cut off by a new voice.

“Do you love her?” 

Lucia’s head snapped up and her gazed locked with Amity’s as the girl watched her with a soft, curiously somber expression in those vivid, gold eyes; an expression she would know anywhere. She fought to swallow the lump in her throat as hot tears tried to push their way to her eyes. Was she shaking, or did it just feel like she was shaking? 

_‘Do you love her?’_

She sucked in a sharp breath through her front teeth as the question reverberated through her body as though she was doused in acid. The intensity of her answer made every inch of her skin burn.

 _She’d never loved anyone more._

“Where is she now?” Amity asked and before the words could even finish leaving her mouth, tears were springing to Lucia’s eyes as a sharp spear of pain cut through her chest like molten iron through butter. She choked on a half sob and shot to her feet, book tumbling to the floor and making the kids jump and stare at her in shock as she bolted for the door, sputtering out some half-choked excuse. Hooty let out an indignant squawk as the door slammed open to bounce off the wall as Lucia disappeared from sight.

“Lucia!?” Luz jumped up and Eda sighed wearily and walked over to stand in front of the kids before any of them could bolt after her.

“Okay… look, you kids… I don't think she wanted to tell you this… especially you.” She looked at Luz, who frowned at that. “But… Lucia’s wife…,” Eda paused, lips puckering as she considered her next words but there was no sense in sugar-coating it, they needed to understand what was at stake. “Her wife died to get her here,” she finally said and the kids froze. Gus blinked up at her and Luz’s jaw hung open as Willow pressed her hands over her mouth in shock. Amity’s fingers dug painfully into the couch cushion as guilt welled up in her. Why had she opened her mouth?

“She… she told you that?” Luz asked quietly and Eda nodded. “Why didn’t she tell me?” she frowned as she looked up at Eda who sighed. 

“Look, Kid, I’m gonna be frank with all of you, there's a lot of things she won’t tell even me, she’s afraid that we’ll do something to change things on our own, and I get it. I don't know much, or anything really, about fancy-schmancy time travel…” Eda threw up a hand and wiggled her fingers. “...but I know she’s afraid of messing up the good things that did happen, like her marriage, and telling you that kind of stuff could really change that…'' Eda crossed her arms as she glanced over the rest of the kids, eyes landing on Amity briefly. “...And don't beat yourself up, Minty. It wasn't your fault.” Amity looked up at her before her eyes fell back into her lap. 

“But I’m the one that…” 

Eda shook her head.

“Like I said. The Kid’s wife died in the process of getting her here… so it's been less than three days… and given how she’s been since she got here, I don’t think she’s given herself any time to mourn… it’s just building up under the surface. So, that little thing that just happened? It was gonna happen, soon, one way or another. You just happened to be the one that poked the final hole in the damn,” she grumbled. 

That didn’t really make Amity feel any better. A tanned hand laid gently over hers in her lap and Amity looked up to find Luz looking at her with a gentle expression. 

“She’s right, Amity. It wasn’t your fault,” she said quietly. Amity looked back at her for a second before nodding silently. 

“So!” Eda drew all their eyes back to her. “Unless she brings it up, don’t mention it, got it?” 

They nodded.

“Good. Ugh, I’m tired of all this already,” she grumbled to herself as she stalked back to the kitchen with the intent of pouring herself a tall glass of appleblood. The teens all looked at each other guiltily. 

Lucia made it as far as the woods just out of sight of the house before she slumped heavily against a tree, tears streaming down her face in rivers and she just couldn't get them to stop no matter what she did, so, finally, she stopped trying. And the flood gates opened.

She sobbed, just like that first night arriving in the past, and slid down the tree to the dirt. She cried long and hard, her whole body trembling with sobs until she had no tears left to shed. Three days of tightly repressed grief and having to stare the ghostly memory of her wife as a teenager in the face all day long had created a pressure cooker of painful emotions and the lid had finally blown off and boiled over. 

So finally she just cried, ‘til her eyes and cheeks were red and raw, her throat sore and dry. 

By the time she had shed every tear she could, eked out every last drop of moisture, the sun was setting, casting bright, orange rays through the woods, bouncing off the trees and casting long shadows across the ground and her face as she sniffled. 

It would be dark soon and she would have to face them eventually. With stiff limbs, she hauled herself to her feet and walked slowly back to the house.

They were all still sitting in the living room when she walked in but they said nothing as she walked straight to the kitchen where Eda was sitting at the table with her palisman. The older witch stood silently and walked over and without a word poured her the tallest glass of Firespirits she could find. Appleblood just wasn’t going to do it tonight according to Eda and Lucia was inclined to agree. She took a long drink and shuddered as the witch alcohol slid down her throat. 

“Lucia?” a quiet voice at her back made her still. 

Luz.

“We… uhh…,” she mumbled.

“We wanted to say we were sorry…,” Willow cut in softly.

“Yeah,” Gus mumbled and Amity mumbled her agreement, still feeling guilty for setting off the older human. 

“We didn’t mean to hurt you…,” Luz started only for Lucia to let out a humorless bark of laughter, stopping Luz cold as the older human turned to face them finally. Her eyes still glassy and tinted red. 

“You didn’t,” she assured, voice still raspy and thick. “It hurts even if no one says anything at all,” she finally said aloud. “It never stops hurting…” She squeezed her eyes shut. “It’s like… having an arm cut off…,” she said softly and the kids looked up at her silently, sadly.“I don’t know how to function without it… I don’t know how to be without…” she bit down hard on the name before it could pass her lips. “... _her_. I don’t know how to be alone after so long of always having her with me,” she sniffled. She had no tears left to shed, just a constant, dull ache remained. 

Luz hesitated a second before throwing her arms around the older human in a tight embrace. Lucia’s eyes shot open and she blinked down at the top of a familiar head.

“You’re not alone though, we're here with you,” she insisted, squeezing. 

She stared down at the teen for a long moment before slowly wrapping her arms around Luz and squeezing her back firmly. 

It wasn’t the same, soft embrace, she was used to, but after losing everyone, it was nice to be held again. Her left hand fisted in the back of Luz’s hoodie and she dropped her face into her hair, soaking up all her warmth. Three other small bodies quickly pressed into her sides, squeezing just as tightly. 

She wasn’t alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks much to RainbowBuddy for going over this for me.


	5. A Nudge

“You are going to set yourself on fire…,” Gus hummed, tapping his cheek as he watched Luz casting fire glyphs in the backyard of the Owl House Wednesday after school.

“Naw, it’s fine!” Luz waved her hand as she cast another spell and fire blazed across the yard, hitting the wall of ice they had erected to catch the deadly projectiles. Another hole melted into the thick slab of ice.

Willow and Amity sat on the ground nearby, watching the pair. 

“Five snails says one of them catches on fire before the day is through…,” Willow said, turning to her and Amity snorted. 

“I’m not taking that bet,” she mumbled distractedly as she watched them.

Willow chuckled but noticed the quiet frown on Amity’s face. 

“Are you okay?” she asked and Amity jerked, turning her attention to the plant witch.

“Huh… yeah, I’m fine…,” she said, waving off her concern and turning her eyes back to the others in the yard. Willow watched her for a long moment. She had a pretty good idea what had Amity so bothered. She glanced over at Gus and Luz before deciding to open this can of worms.

“You’ve been pretty quiet since the other day when you found out that Luz is married in the future…” she said casually and, predictably, Amity jumped.

“W-What!?” her voice cracked and it took all of Willow’s considerable self-control not to grin as Amity started to turn pink. “Why- why would that bother me at all?” she managed to squeak out, eyes wide. Willow managed to choke down her laughter but the corners of her mouth twitched upward.

She glanced at their friends again and found them too distracted trying to combine Gus’s clones with Luz’s new fire magic to be paying them any attention. She turned back to Amity, still flushed and staring at her. 

“Maybe… because of your crush on Luz?” she asked and, as she knew it would, Amity’s face turned bright red.

“WHAT?!” She yelped making Willow jerk back. She quickly glanced over at Luz and Gus, who were so busy shouting excitedly at each other that they didn't even notice her yell. “Why would you say that, I don’t have a crush on Luz…,” she hissed. Willow leveled her with a long, flat look. They stared at each other for a long, tense moment before Amity finally glanced down at her lap.

“Was it that obvious?” she mumbled.

“Yes,” Willow said and Amity winced. “That’s beside the point though… Are you upset about the ‘Luz being happily married’ thing?” she asked again and Amity frowned.

“I’m not… upset… that it was happy… I guess I’m just… disappointed that I never had a chance.” She grumbled, still not looking at her childhood friend. 

“Who said you don’t have a chance?” Willow looked at her, brow furrowing in confusion. “If anything I think this means you have a great chance.”

“How do you figure?” Amity glanced at her curiously from the corner of her eye. 

“Well, let's look at what we know. She was married to a witch that she met at school. You’re a witch she met at school.” Willow smirked at her like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Amity looked at her sourly, face pinched in annoyance at the amused and knowing lilt in her voice. 

“There are a lot of witches she goes to school with. Like you, for instance,” she grumbled and Willow snorted as another fireball boomed in front of them. Her gaze flickered to the two, to make sure no one was ablaze yet before dancing green eyes turned back to Amity.

“Even without any knowledge of the future. I know it's not me,” she assured. “I love Luz but never like that, trust me.” She chuckled. 

“There’s no way to know though... She’s not going to tell us and if she’s meant for someone else… nothing I say, or do, can change that…,” she mumbled morosely, turning her eyes back to her lap and the large cast on the leg sticking out in front of her. Willow rolled her eyes at the other witch. Amity could be such a fatalist. 

“I know you study abominations but your mom was in the oracle track. What’s the first rule of oracles?” Willow asked and Amity looked up. She blinked for a second, thinking.

“Time is fluid and nothing is set in stone,” she recited from memory. 

“Exactly! If everything was set in stone, Lucia wouldn’t have come back to alter it. The future can be changed,” Willow reminded her but Amity didn’t look convinced. 

Before Willow could try again, Luz and Gus came trotting over.

“What are you guys talking about?” she asked and Amity froze. 

“Lucia’s wife,” Willow answered, mostly, honestly. 

“Oh… yeah, I’ve been thinking about that too…,” Luz admitted.

“Really?” Gus turned to her and she nodded. 

“I mean… Lucia is me in ten years so… who do I marry? Do I… have to marry them? I know Lucia was happy and all but… I dunno, it’s weird to think about…,” she admitted.

“Luz, you don’t have to marry anyone. Just because Lucia did, doesn’t mean you do.” Willow told her nervous-looking friend. 

“If you’re worried about it, you should talk to Lucia.” Gus offered and Luz made a face.

“Eda said not to bring it up to her… you saw her the other day…” she mumbled.

“I think she’d want you to talk to her about this though…” Amity offered and Luz hummed. 

“Hey!” A voice from above called and they turned to look.

“Eda and Lucia are back!” Luz grinned. 

Sure enough, the two witches were flying toward them on their staffs. Willow stood and carefully helped Amity up so they could greet the women as they landed.

“How was the market?” Luz asked as Lucia slid her staff into its holster on her back.

“Full of chumps, it was great,” Eda laughed, pulling back her hood and allowing King to pop out. Lucia rolled her eyes but grinned at the older witch. 

“Busy, as usual,” she agreed as she flipped back her own hood and Calliban stuck his head up from his place curled around her neck. Sapphire blue eyes roamed over the children before locking on Amity and before Lucia could stop him, he shot from her shoulders and flew in front of the girl’s face. 

Amity jerked back as the golden dragon hovered in front of her and let out a series of low grumbling sounds, making Amity’s eyes widen.

“Um… yeah, of course.” She nodded and the palisman settled on her shoulders, careful of his claws. 

“Oh, that’s right!” Luz grinned. “Calliban is your palisman!” 

“My palisman?” she blinked as the scaly creature rubbed his body against her neck and she could feel it. That soft, ethereal connection to him. Her own magic surrounded him like a second skin, familiar and easily recognizable. 

He was her palisman. 

Which begged another question. 

“Why do you have my palisman?” she turned her questioning gaze up to Lucia, who was frowning, displeased at the magical familiar. 

“You sent him with me, to help me,” she said simply. Amity frowned and felt a tentative push at the boundaries of her mind. A low, gruff voice, tinted with amusement. 

_ “She needs all the help she can get.” _

Amity giggled behind her free hand and Lucia glowered at the little dragon. She could hear him even from here. 

“So, what are you little troublemakers doing?” Eda chose to cut in at that moment. She could see the tension rising in Lucia’s frame. 

“Practicing our offensive magic,” Gus said proudly. And the older witch snorted. 

“What kind of offensive magic can you squirts do?” she asked and Luz was quick to jump in and show her mentor what she had been practicing.

“Oh! Watch this, Eda!” Luz quickly drew up another fire glyph and tapped it before hurling it toward the half-melted wall of ice on the other side of the yard, where it hit with a loud sizzle. 

“Ooh, I could use that!” King piped up. 

“Not bad, Kid.” she nodded.

“Except it’s slow,” Lucia added. “If you press your fingers into it as you activate it and throw, it’s quicker.” She dipped a hand into one of her pouches and without looking threw out a card that quickly exploded into a giant ball of fire that smashed into the ice, burning a hole clear through the center. 

“Whoa!” the kids all oohed and awed. 

“I want her for my army!” King shouted, pointing at Lucia. 

“Not bad, still not quite as good as my magic…,” Eda said and Lucia snorted.

“My glyphs can go toe to toe with your magic any day,” she asserted with a grin and Eda burst out laughing. 

Lucia rolled her eyes as Eda bent over, snorting with laughter for several minutes before finally getting herself under control. 

“Oh, that’s a good one, Kid, but did you forget who I am?” she asked with a grin. 

“You may be the most powerful witch on the Boiling Isles but I am the only glyph master in all the Isles in hundreds of years.” Lucia poked a finger to herself. “I could give you a run for your money.” 

Eda grinned wickedly at her.

“Oh yeah? Why don’t we just see about that?” she asked and a grin broke out on Lucias’s face.

“Let’s. I challenge you to a witch’s duel!” Lucia proclaimed. 

“What!?” Luz yelped. 

“I accept!” Eda grinned and reached up to grab King by the scruff. “Here, Luz.” she handed the demon over to Luz.

“Eda is going to destroy her!” Willow grimaced as she turned to the others, who all looked equally worried. A crunch made them turn to Gus, chewing as he held a bucket of popcorn between his hands. He blinked back at them. 

“What?” 

“Gus!” 

Lucia pulled her staff from her back and gave it a spin as the two stood across from each other.

“Count us in, Flowers!” Eda called and the girl looked at them nervously before nodding.

“ 3… 2… 1… Begin!” 

Eda spun a finger and a blast of fire flew across the yard. It landed and a plume of smoke filled the air.

“Huh, I thought it would last longer than that at least…” Eda grumbled, reaching up to scratch her head.

“You just barbecued me!” Luz yelled.

Calliban snorted, a puff of smoke drifting from his nostrils and Amity again heard the low voice.

_ “Hardly.” _

Amity blinked and squinted into the thick, black smoke. 

Suddenly vines erupted from the smog and Eda jumped back before one could impale her. The smoke cleared, revealing a tall wall of ice, partially melted from the blast, vines winding out from behind it. One rose up, Lucia perched on it and grinning, the eyes of her palisman glowing with a violet light.

“Whoa..” Gus shoveled another handful of popcorn into his mouth and crunched happily, ignoring the several pieces that missed and fell to the ground, King quickly picked them up and popped them in his mouth. 

“Now we're talking!” Eda grinned as a glyph went flying through the air and exploded in a blast of fire that sailed past Eda as she dodged out of the way, fingers already spinning rapid circles as wooden Hooty's began popping out of the ground, shooting toward Lucia.

She knew that one. 

The vine beneath her feet whipped up out of the way and she jumped to the next as it weaved between the owl golems. Fire glyphs flew through the air, incinerating any that came to close.

“Wow….” Luz watched, amazed as the human witch jumped to the ground and grabbed a handful of cards from a pouch, tossing them across the yard. They erupted in flashes of blinding light and suddenly the yard was full of humming black pits that crackled with magic. Eda watched them carefully before looking at Lucia, who winked before hopping into the nearest one and disappearing. 

“Where’d she go?” Willow mumbled. Amity’s eyes scanned the field of battle carefully, as did Eda’s.

In the blink of an eye, a large, gooey abomination hand rose from the portal nearest Eda and closed its hand in a fist. In a quick spin of her finger, Eda flashed across the yard just before the fist slammed into the ground, making the earth tremble violently. At that same moment, Lucia popped out of another portal and threw another glyph. 

Eda spun her staff, deflecting the spike of ice that flashed into existence as it flew across the yard. Vines erupted beneath her feet once more, holding her aloft as Eda glared at her.

“How d’you like my glyphs now, Eda?” Lucia grinned and the older of the two grunted.

Okay, she had underestimated the other witch.

“Not bad, Kid.” She grinned and spun her finger, several glowing spell circles appearing in the air and Lucia’s face fell. She knew that one too.

Just as bright, orange shots of magical energy began to rain down around her, her vines disintegrating into dust beneath her feet, she lept into the nearest transportation portal.

Eda waited, eyes darting from portal to portal that littered the ground. Where was she going to pop up?

A crunch of grass behind her made her whip around, shield already blazing to life as lightning roared through the air to strike it with enough impact to push her back a few inches. Her cover blown, Lucia let the masking illusion fall and became visible once more, dashing forward to clash against Eda, their staffs locking against each other in mid-air.

Eda was panting with the exertion of so much high-level magic and Lucia was almost out of glyph cards. The yard was also on fire.

“Call it a draw?” Lucia offered between gritted teeth as they stared hard into each other’s eyes. 

“A draw,” Eda grunted and they both stepped back.

“Still the most powerful witch in all the Isles.” Lucia grinned and Eda snorted. 

“Not so bad yourself, Kid. You weren’t kidding about all that fighting.”

“That was amazing!” Luz danced around excitedly. “Terrifying but amazing!” She said as she jogged over, her friends right behind. 

Lucia laughed and reached up to wipe the sweat from her brow. The sunlight caught on her ring and Luz caught the glint, remembering her earlier conversation with her friends, and frowned. 

Lucia noticed the quick switch in her mood.

“Something wrong?” she asked and Luz hesitated before nodding.

“I… was thinking... about the… married thing,” she admitted and caught the slight wince in her counterpart's face, so she pressed on quickly. “I know you were happy and all but…. Do I have to marry them specifically… do I not get a choice?” she asked and Lucia blinked, sharing a quick glance with Eda, who shrugged. 

Lucia sighed and slid her staff into its holster.

“Luz, listen to me. I was happy… well, with my wife, the rest of the future was kind of a shit show,” she shrugged and Eda snorted. “And as much as I miss her… that has nothing to do with you…,” she said and Luz blinked up at her, confused. 

“But… me and you…” she started only for the older witch to cut her off, laying a hand on her shoulder. 

“Are different,” she said. “You and I are the same person only up to a certain point in time. I…” she hesitated a moment before sighing and carrying on. “I don't think anything I do here will ever bring back what I’ve lost,” she admitted quietly before taking a breath and the rest of them could feel the painful defeat in that statement. “But that wasn't the point,” she carried on. “I came back to save everyone, in both worlds. By saving the past, I can save her, and even if you don’t end up with her, she’ll be alive, along with everyone else and that’s all I want. I’ll always have my memories but you aren't chained to them; you are free to make whatever choices you want,” she said seriously, staring into identical brown eyes.

Luz stared back for a long moment before nodding.

“Alright.”

Lucia gave her shoulder a squeeze before letting go and turning to Eda.

“Welp, I'm hungry now…” 

“Yeah, beating people up sure works up an appetite… and a thirst… mama’s juice is calling, come on, Kid.” she jerked her head and walked into the house with King. Lucia chuckled and held out a hand to Calliban, who carefully avoided eye contact but she gave him a hard look and, with a resigned grumble, crawled into her hand before she followed Eda into the house, leaving the witchlings alone in the yard. 

“Well… I guess I’ll just make my own choices and whatever happens happens.” Luz shrugged. 

Willow turned to Amity and nudged her with an elbow. She jerked and looked at her questioningly. 

“Now,” Willow hissed.

“What?” Amity blinked.

“Tell her how you feel. You heard Lucia and you know it’s true, nothing is for certain. Just tell her how you feel!” 

“W- But I…” Her face flushed as she glanced between Willow and Luz frantically. 

“Are you just going to wait until her future wife comes along when you could make a move now?” Willow whispered with a hiss in her ear.

Amity bit her lip, her grip on her crutch tightening to keep the shaking from her hand as she turned her gaze to Luz as she and Gus discussed Eda and Lucia’s duel. Her eyes flickered to Willow who was looking at her expectantly.

She took a shaky breath and Willow gave an encouraging nod.

“Luz…?” she called quietly and the girl turned immediately to look at her.

“What’s up, Amity?” she smiled. 

“Can… can I talk to you for a minute… alone?” she asked softly and Luz’s face turned concerned.

Willow quickly walked toward the back door and turned to Gus.

“Come on, Gus, let’s get something to drink…,” she said as he trotted after her.

“Okay! Maybe not any ‘mama’s juice’ though…” he trailed off as they disappeared inside the house. Luz walked up, still looking concerned. 

“Are you okay? Is something wrong?” Luz asked quickly and Amity’s heart fluttered in her chest. Trust Luz to be the first to jump to her aid. She was just so sweet and kind and it made her face flush even brighter and her hands start to sweat.

“No… no, nothing is wrong…,” she mumbled, looking into Luz’s bright, concerned, brown eyes before turning her own back to her feet. She could feel how hot her face was as well as Luz’s eyes on her. “I need to tell you something, Luz.” she finally managed to force out and peeked at the girl from beneath her lashes. Now she just looked curious as she stared back at the witch and Amity swallowed thickly. 

“I…” her grip on the crutch tightened until the wood squeaked in her fist. “I like you, Luz.” she finally spat out and waited. It was quiet for a long moment before she tentatively glanced up to see Luz looking at her more confused than ever.

“I like you too? That’s why we're friends,” she said and Amity felt herself die a little inside. Luz didn’t understand. 

“No, Luz, I mean… I like you more than friends… a lot more,” she mumbled embarrassed that she was having to spell it out. 

Luz blinked, soaking up what she just said for what felt like, to Amity, an eternity before it smacked her upside the head with the force of a rampaging griffin.

“Oh. OH!” Luz’s mouth hung open in shock as she stared at a furiously blushing Amity, who was staring back down at her feet again. 

“I… uh…” Luz was at a loss for words. Her mind was a whirlwind of thoughts and feelings and she couldn’t seem to peg any of them down. How was she supposed to respond, how did she feel? 

How did she feel about Amity?

That one made her pause. How  _ did _ she feel about Amity? 

She liked Amity, of course, a lot. She was smart, talented, fun, and really good at grudgby! Not to mention she loved reading and Azura as much as Luz, she’d even seen the kind of dopey offshoot movies. She stared at the brightly flushing witch for a long moment. 

There was no denying that Amity was pretty too and for whatever reason, of the many friends she had now, she just liked being around her. Dancing at Grom, despite the giant eldritch monster, had been a lot of fun too. 

Grom.

She had almost completely forgotten about Grom.

Amity felt like she might pass out at any moment if Luz didn’t say something soon. Acceptance, rejection, something, anything!

“Was it me?” 

Amity’s eyes shot up at the quiet, bashful question that was so uncharacteristic of her loud, exuberant Luz. Once her eyes were no longer on the ground but on her, Luz repeated her question fully.

“Was it me, that you wanted to ask to Grom?” she asked and Amity’s flush stretched up to her ears under Luz’s intense gaze. 

“Yes.” She nodded, fisting the hand not holding her crutch into the skirt of her uniform. Of course, Luz was putting it together. “I was afraid of being rejected… by you.” Her voice was barely more than a whimper as emotions started to rise up her throat the longer Luz did not give her an answer one way or the other, the longer she was left in a suspended state of unknowing. She could feel the prickle of tears starting to gather in the corners of her eyes and tried to quickly blink them away. She was not going to let anyone, especially Luz, see her cry. 

“I would have said yes.”

Her head whipped up so fast she thought she might have heard her neck pop. 

“W-what?” her voice was thick and clogged. 

“If you'd asked me to go to Grom with you,” she clarified. “I would have said yes,” she said sheepishly, reaching up to scratch the back of her head, if for no other reason than to have something to do with her twitching hands. There was an electric, nervous energy coursing through her whole body, and not the kind she usually felt that made her bounce her leg or rock back and forth when she was standing in line somewhere. This was different, it was warm and tingly and her stomach felt like it was about to come out of her throat as Amity stared back at her dark, red face with open wonder.

“You… would have?” she asked tentatively, reaching up to nervously brush a loose strand of mint-green hair behind one of her pointed, pink ears. 

_ ‘Cute _ ’ Echoed somewhere in the back of her mind as she swallowed the lump that kept trying to form in her throat. 

“Why wouldn’t I have? I… I think I like you too…” Now that she said it, she was surprised how right it sounded as it passed her lips. She did like Amity. Who wouldn’t like Amity?

“You think?” Amity repeated, frowning. “Luz, if you don’t feel that way, it’s okay....” It took everything she had to keep the crack out of her voice as she said it. Luz’s eyes widened and she threw up her hands, shaking them wildly. 

“NO, no!” Luz shook her head. “I just… I mean, everything has been so crazy since I got here… and we didn’t exactly start off on the right foot… you trying to have me dissected and all…” she trailed off, and if possible Amity flushed even darker at that. “I just haven't had a lot of time to really think about how I felt… but I do like you too, Amity!” she said quickly. “I mean, who wouldn’t? You’re smart and pretty, and a really good dancer…” she trailed off and with everything she named, Amity felt herself edging closer and closer to erupting like a volcano. Until Luz’s quiet voice penetrated the internal screaming.

“...I just don’t understand why you would like me,” she mumbled, eyes flicking down to her hands, tangled together in front of her. Amity’s brow furrowed.

“Why wouldn’t I?” she asked, genuinely confused. Luz shrugged almost helplessly. 

“People just… don’t. In the human world, I’m an outcast, people don't even wanna sit next to me at lunch, much less be my friend and never mind, date me.” she frowned down at her hands miserably. That was why her mother had sent her to ‘summer camp’ in the first place, after all.

“Well, those people are wrong,” Amity said with a fierceness that surprised not only Luz but herself, as gold locked with brown. “You’re the bravest, kindest, and most thoughtful person I’ve ever known, Luz. You… you make me want to be better, to do better, and… I think you're something really special,” she finished and they stared at each other for a long moment, both red as the stripes on a crimson basilisk when pounding on the window made them both whip toward the house.

Eda, King, Gus, and Willow were standing in the window, watching. Gus and Willow looked guilty while Eda rapped on the glass.

“You’re making me nauseous, just ask her out already!” she yelled through the glass. 

“Aw, geez...,” Luz groaned, turning away from the window, back to Amity, who looked equally as embarrassed. “So… uh… you wanna…?”

“Yes!” Amity nearly yelled before she could even finish the question, making Luz jerk back but a wide grin broke out across her face. A sudden swell of courage rose up in her chest at the zealous response. 

“Eager, I guess?” she teased and Amity’s eyes widened a fraction but Luz, who had been staring at her so intently, caught it quickly.

“Sh- Shut up!” Amity snapped, turning her eyes anywhere but the maniacally grinning human.

It wasn’t long afterward that Amity had to head home, as it took her longer with her leg in the cast.

“At least let me walk you home!” Luz scrambled to volunteer as Amity moved toward the path that led away from the Owl House. “Just in case…,” she said. 

“I have magic, Luz,” she giggled under her breath and Luz’s face fell like a kicked Cerberus puppy. “I wouldn’t mind the company, though…” she said, after a second.

“I bet…” Gust muttered to Willow, who snickered, making their friends turn pink again. 

“You guys don’t mind, right?” she asked them and Willow shook her head.

“No, we gotta go anyway, so don’t worry.” she waved a hand and Luz beamed at the two before trotting back across the yard to join Amity.

From the second-floor window, Lucia watched them walk slowly down the path, hands ghosting closer and closer together, one of them trying to work up the courage to reach out and take the other’s hand but they soon disappeared from sight. The second Amity had begun her confession she had gone upstairs, Eda’s knowing eyes watching her flee while Gus and Willow were distracted with their friends outside. 

She’d still watched from her room but she didn’t trust herself to keep a rein on her emotions in front of Gus and Willow. Calliban rumbled quietly in her ear and she smirked as she watched them disappear down the path. 

“Of course, they look good together. I meant what I said, they can both make their own choices regardless of what she and I did, but those two belong together,” she mumbled to him quietly. 

The words snagged on a memory at the edge of her mind. 

_ Luz stared up at the bright sky full of stars from her place laying back in the cool grass, hands draped across her stomach. It was a perfectly calm night, a rarity over the last six months since the Emperor had started his campaign to finally and totally clamp down on all unauthorized acts of wild magic. The eighteen-year-old took a deep breath and relaxed further into the cool blades of deep, blue grass.  _

_ “Luz?” Amity mumbled from beside her, prompting her to hum and roll her head to look questioningly at her fiance. She knew that tone. Amity wanted to ask something. _

_ “What’s up, mi Amor?”  _

_ Amity didn’t answer for a moment and Luz waited patiently. Amity would speak when she was ready.  _

_ “Do you ever worry, about the future, I mean?” she finally asked, head rolling to look at Luz. Her golden eyes shining even in the darkness and Luz frowned.  _

_ “Sure, mostly I worry that we’re going to be living with Eda long after we're married…,” she joked but Amity’s frown deepened and she sat up abruptly. Luz frowned and followed her. “I’m guessing you meant something else though…” she said quietly. Amity nodded. _

_ “With everything that’s been happening lately… I just worry,” she mumbled and Luz scooted closers and carefully wrapped her arm around Amity’s shoulders. _

_ “About?” she prompted softly.  _

_ “You,” Amity breathed, turning her eyes to catch Luz’s.  _

_ “Me?” she blinked and the witch nodded.  _

_ “Everything seems to get more dangerous by the day and you're gone fighting and helping people more and more often… we both are… I just… I worry one day, you won’t come back to me.” she admitted quietly, squeezing her eyes closed. _

_ "Hey, I’ll always come back to you!” Luz insisted, squeezing her closer. _

_ "How can you promise me that?!” She snapped desperately, jerking away to better face the human witch.  _

_ Luz frowned and reached up, gently cupping Amity’s cheeks between her hands, thumbs running gently over the sharp lines of her cheeks.  _

_ “Because I will always do everything in my power to come back to you, Amor. You and I belong together,” she mumbled as she pressed her forehead to Amity’s. _

Water dripped slowly down her cheeks and splattered on the windowsill in soft, nearly silent  _ ‘plinks’.  _ She didn’t try to stop it. It was easier to let it flow, let the pain run its course. She took a long, shuddering breath and Calliban rumbled soothingly in her ear. No words, just a comforting vibration. 

The pain in her heart throbbed but hope had kindled alongside it.

Amity had confessed to her under their grom tree one day in early fall, not the backyard of the Owl House in mid to late summer.

She  _ could _ change things. She would.

~

After dinner she was lying on her makeshift floor bed, flipping through one of Eda’s books when a quiet knock made her lookup.

“Lucia? Can I come in?” Luz’s voice, muffled by the door, called out. 

“Sure, Luz,” she called and the door opened a crack and Luz stuck her head in. 

“Are you busy?” she asked and the older witch shook her head and closed her book with a sharp snap.

“Naw, what’s up?” 

Luz walked in, closing the door behind her, and plopped herself down on the floor next to her. 

“So… I asked Amity out today…,” she said, watching the other woman's face, which Lucia kept carefully schooled into a face of mild interest.

“I saw,” she nodded, and then they stared at each other for a long second while Luz attempted to gauge her reaction. 

“Is that… okay?” she asked and Lucia snorted. 

“Luz, I meant what I said earlier. Your future is yours to make whatever you will of it. I’m here to make sure you and everyone else gets to have one. If you want to be with Amity, then be with Amity.” She shrugged and watched as the worried look on Luz’s face melted away into a one of giddy shyness that made Lucia smile. 

“It’s exciting, isn’t it?” she asked. “When someone likes you for you?” she asked and watched, amused, as a pleased flush spread across Luz’s cheeks. 

“Yeah” She nodded, kneading her fingers into the legs of her sleeping shorts. “Oh, you know Amity really well, where should I take her for a date?” she asked and Lucia snorted but shook her head.

“Nope.”

“Wha- but…!” 

“Luz, half the fun of dating is learning about the other person, from  _ them _ . The other half is making out,” she added and grinned as Luz turned bright red and sputtered helplessly. “Just spend time with her and you’ll learn everything you need to know, trust me,” she said with a grin.

Luz grumbled but nodded, face still hot. 

“Okay…” 

“You got school tomorrow, you’d better go to bed,” Lucia reminded.

Luz grinned, even as she rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going, mom,” she drawled, hopping up only for a wadded-up shirt to smack her in the face.

“¡Vete de aquí, mocosa!” She yelled as Luz ran out of the room, squealing with laughter.

“¡Maleducada!” she yelled back from down the hall making Lucia laugh.


	6. Chit-chat

The sun had just started to peek over the horizon when Lucia clamored down the stairs to the kitchen. She was surprised to find Eda already there, flipping through a book as she stood over a pot, an ugly yellow scarf wrapped around her neck. 

“You’re up early,” she said suddenly, making the other witch jump and spin around. 

“Oh, it’s just you,’ she grunted sourly and Lucia hummed as she sat herself at the table, setting Calliban down in front of her. 

_ ‘She seems to be in high spirits today,’  _ the familiar rumbled quietly and Lucia snorted. 

“It’s not going to take her long to notice your gem beneath that travesty of a scarf,” she said knowingly and Eda froze for a moment before looking at her over her shoulder.

“Of course, you  _ would _ know about that…,” she grumbled before turning back to whatever she was doing, which seemed to be preparing the witch’s wool inside. Lucia smirked, soft affection blooming in her chest at the sight of it. She had worn that old cloak till it had practically fallen off her shoulders, which had been long after she had technically outgrown it but she just hadn’t been able to part with it. Amity had tried to get rid of it a few times in their late teens but Luz always managed to find it. 

After Eda died, Amity never brought it up again.

“Of course I do. It’s the whole reason everything started,” she said. That caused Eda to stop what she was doing completely and turn to face her. 

“How does my curse cause the crap future that you came from?” she asked seriously. Lucia had known the second she opened her mouth that Eda would want answers. She was prepared to give some, though, only some. 

“This all started because of a mistake I made trying to heal your curse…,” she admitted, making the older witch’s frown deepen. “I can’t tell you much more than that… just trust me that today is very important and I’m going to fix it,” she promised, both to Eda and herself. 

“I don’t have much choice but to trust you…,” Eda finally sighed before turning back to her pot.

Lucia snorted. That was about as much a ringing endorsement as one could hope to get from Edalyn Clawthorne, so she’d take it. 

She sat there in the quiet for a while, thinking as she listened to Eda grumble to herself. She had to face off with Lilith today. She knew that much and honestly, that conversation could go either way. She was armed with enough knowledge about Lilith to easily convince her that she came from the future, which should, hopefully, get the stubborn older Clawthorne to listen to her, at least enough. 

She sighed and ran an exhausted hand through her hair. She needed to talk to Lilith but most importantly, she needed to stop Luz from going on that field trip to the castle. She didn’t know how much she was changing yet, only that it was, in fact, changing. There were too many variables if Luz went to the castle, Lilith and Belos especially. She didn’t know how successful she would be with Lilith on one try and the farther Luz stayed away from the castle the better. Belos was unpredictable. Even after a decade, the most she knew about him was that he was crafty, powerful, and willing to do whatever it took to get the portal and open it by the day of unity. 

She just needed to get them past that day, then everything would be fine. 

Easier said than done though. That was still over a month away and she couldn’t watch over everything every day. She would focus on the things she could control. The portal and Luz. Eda had the portal and she was, for all her boasting, a master at worming her way out of tight situations. Luz was the only thing she would willingly throw herself into danger for. So really, she just needed to worry about her younger counterpart. 

“For someone who’s ‘going to fix it’ you sure don’t look confident…” Eda’s voice broke her from her thoughts. She frowned at the witch.

“Sorry, I came from a future only a week ago where everyone I ever loved died horrible deaths, I’ll try to be more cheery as the weight of two worlds rests on my shoulders!” she snapped, making Eda frown. 

“Look, Kid, I know you’ve been through a lot but maybe if you just told us what we’re facing here…,” she trailed off and Lucia shook her head. 

“I know I can trust you, Eda, but if you or Luz change things too much from what I know happened then we’ll be flying blind and everything I know will be useless. I need to stop what I know is going to happen. Things are already changing…” 

“What’s changed already?” 

“Luz and Amity…,” she said and Eda cocked a brow at her. She glanced over her shoulder to make sure neither King nor Luz would appear before turning back to her old mentor. “Amity didn’t confess to me till early fall… and it wasn’t here at the house… I know things are already changing and I’m not sure by how much… I have to tread carefully,” she mumbled. 

“I’ll follow your lead, Kid.” She nodded and that, honestly, took a lot off of Lucia’s mind, so she stood, nodding.

“Thanks, I need to go get some stuff ready… try not to eat Luz…” she mumbled under her breath and Eda gave her a funny look as she disappeared from the room. 

It was about half an hour later that she heard the commotion of Hooty playing with the coven members in the front yard and she rolled her eyes. She had some time yet. She sat on her makeshift bed jotting her thoughts down in a thick, leatherbound journal. A gift from Amity on her twenty-third birthday. 

_ “It’s a journal,” Amity said as Luz pulled the wrapping away from the gift. She gave the witch a curious look and Amity smiled. “I know you’ve been kind of stressed lately… and writing in my diary always helps me, so I figured that maybe this could help you,” she explained. _

_ Luz ran her fingers over the soft, smooth leather and smiled. _

_ “I love it.”  _

She smiled to herself as she scratched at the paper with smooth, careful strokes. Her chest throbbed but she did her best to hold on to the joy of the memory and not let the pain taint it. It was hard and it hurt so much but she tried, tried to hold tight to the feeling of love and adoration that was there, rather than the grief and melancholy. 

She finished and snapped the book closed before slipping it back into her bag. She could hear the commotion downstairs as Eda’s curse took over and King and Luz screamed. She hauled herself to her feet and grabbed a few glyphs from her pouch before walking down the hall to Eda’s room where the two were trying to force-feed her potions. She threw out a few barrier glyphs, restraining the witch.

“Lucia!” Luz called, relief flooding her. 

“Pour ‘em down her.” She nodded to the potion stash. More than a few potions later, Eda had finally transformed back and Lucia leaned against the wall to watch the familiar conversation unfold. The feeling of deja vu never really seemed to go away. 

“Okay... time for school…,” Eda grumbled, edging out of the room with King and Luz hanging off of her. Lucia rolled her eyes and smirked to herself as she followed. Eda was slinging Luz’s bag over her shoulder and pushing her toward the door. Before they could get there, a knock on the door made them all pause. Lucia frowned. No one came over that morning before she left for school. 

She opened the door to find Gus and Willow standing there, both bouncing excitedly.

“Hi, Lucia!”

“Guys, what are you doing here?” Luz turned to them, allowing Eda to escape to the kitchen with King.

“We came to get Luz for school,” Willow smiled at her as she stepped inside and Lucia nodded before ducking into the kitchen to help Eda fix her scarf back around her half dark gem. While the adults stepped away, Luz rushed to pull her friends into a hug and began oohing and aahing over the Castle guide book. She was especially interested in the section on relics.

“...cure any curse…” she mumbled to herself as an idea began to form in her head. She could cure Eda with that! 

“Okay, yeah, let’s go!” She grinned.

“Whoa, you’re not going anywhere!” Lucia called as she and Eda returned to the room. 

“What, why?” she looked up at her surprised.

“I can’t say, but you’re  _ not _ going on that field trip.”

“But I have to go!” Luz insisted, glancing at Eda, who was watching Lucia curiously. 

“Yeah, I know why you ‘have to go’ and the answer is no. You need to stay as far away from that place as possible.” 

“But Lucia!” Luz threw up her hands. If she knew then surely she understood why Luz needed to try. If she could just get that hat then they could cure Eda!

“No buts, the answer is no.” She held up a hand and Luz felt her frustration bubble over. 

“Well, you’re not in charge of me!” she shouted and everyone stopped to stare at her in shock. Lucia’s was short-lived and she glanced at Eda meaningfully. The older witch sighed through her nose.

“But I am, and if she says you need to stay away from the castle, then no trip, Kid,” Eda said with finality and Luz stared at them in disbelief. 

“You two better hurry along before you miss the carriage.” Lucia turned to Gus and Willow, who looked at each other, unsure, before turning to Luz.

“We’ll come by and tell you about later, Luz,” Willow offered weakly and Gus nodded before they hurried out.

“Why can’t I go to the castle?!” she demanded angrily.

“Because it’s dangerous. You just have to trust me,” Lucia said and Luz growled before turning and stomping up the stairs. 

They heard the door slam and Lucia breathed a sigh of relief. 

“Why couldn’t she go?” Eda turned to her and asked, crossing her arms.

“Because she was going to get herself into big, big trouble,” she said meaningfully, turning to look at Eda, who grunted before her eyes fell on the pot of witch’s wool and she picked it up with a smile.

“I think I know what might make her feel better…,” she hummed to herself and Lucia smirked as the witch disappeared into the kitchen. 

Lucia looked back up at the second floor and frowned. Maybe she wasn’t giving Luz enough credit. She could be impulsive and stubborn at times, but surely Luz would understand the danger if she just gave her a little more to work with. She sighed angrily to herself. How often had someone tried to pull the ‘I’m the adult and what I say goes.’ shit? She hummed to herself and hurried up the stairs. Luz’s bedroom door was closed and she could hear her stomping around and kicking things behind it. 

She tapped on it and heard the quiet huff from the other side. 

“I don’t want to talk, Eda,” she grumbled.

“It’s me,” Lucia called through the door.

“I don’t want to talk to you either,” came the annoyed reply and Lucia rolled her eyes. 

“Teenagers…,” she mumbled to herself before opening the door anyway. If they wanted to be technical, it was her room too. Luz looked up at her from her place sitting on her sleeping bag as she came in the door. Lucia easily knew that angry face. 

“I said I don’t want to talk to you,” she mumbled, and pressed her face into her knees and pointedly refusing to look at the older witch, who sighed deeply.

“Look, Luz. I know I’m being vague and not telling you much, but you need to trust me here. I need you to understand that I know how all of this goes if it’s left as is,” she explained but the teenager still refused to look at her and Lucia sighed and knelt down beside her. “Listen to me. I love Eda, you know I do, and I want to heal her curse but the healing hat?” she asked, making Luz glance up at her. “It won’t work. In my timeline, Willow, Gus, and I tried and it got destroyed by Lilith, so I never even got the chance to try. Things are changing, Luz but I don’t know by how much yet…”

“Enough to stop the future you came from?” Luz finally asked, looking at her and Lucia shook her head. 

“No… not yet, I don’t think we’ll be safe from that for sure until the day of unity has passed... So for now, I need you to trust me, okay?” she rested a hand on Luz’s shoulder and after a moment, the teenager finally nodded. 

“Yeah, okay.” 

“Are we… good?”

Luz finally met her eyes, the sulking hurt lingered, but she nodded. “Yeah, we’re good.”

“Good… now, I have something I have to go do,” she said, squeezing Luz’s shoulder before standing and walking out of Luz’s room and quickly down the stairs. 

With that taken care of, she had to move onto her next task. She pressed the glyph tattooed to her palm with her fingers and her staff flew down the stairs after her and into her open hand.

“I’ll be back, Eda!” she called and hurried out the front door without waiting for an answer.

In her room, Luz sat on her sleeping bag and sighed to herself after her older counterpart had vanished from the doorway. Now, what was she supposed to do all day while all her friends were on the field trip and she had been forbidden from going? It was hard. She trusted Lucia, she did, but she made it hard with her unwillingness to tell them anything that might help them understand what exactly they were trying to avoid on their imminent crash course with the future. 

She sighed and flopped back onto her sleeping bag, still grumbling to herself, ‘til a chiming beside her made her glance over. Her scroll. 

Well, Lucia’s old scroll anyway. Since she had no one to contact, she’d given it to Luz as a way to keep in contact with her friends and Amity - after meticulously clearing it of all photos and contact runes, that is, not that the runes connected to anything now anyway. She got the feeling Lucia was more worried about any photos leftover on the device than anything else. 

She reached over and picked it up, her bad mood evaporating almost instantly at the message flashing on the magical screen. A message from Amity. 

_ ‘Have fun on the field trip’ _

She smiled dopily to herself as butterflies erupted in her stomach, though it was tempered slightly by the reminder that she had been forbidden from going on said trip. She hit a button and typed out a quick reply.

_ ‘I’m not going on the trip. I wasn’t allowed.’  _ she tapped send and within a few seconds, the familiar dots that indicated a message popped up.

_ ‘Why not?’ _

_ ‘Lucia wouldn’t let me :(’  _ She typed back.  _ ‘I’m just sitting in my room…’ _

_ ‘So am I.”  _

That was right. Amity hadn’t been allowed to go on the trip because of her leg, which would be healed by Saturday with magic but for now, had her laid up in bed at her parents' insistence. 

She hummed to herself. Amity couldn’t go on the trip because of her leg. So she was sitting at home.

Alone.

There was no reason they couldn’t be alone together... 

She suddenly remembered what Lucia had said the other day about half the fun of dating.

“No… no, not like that...,'' she mumbled hotly to herself, her cheeks turning red. They hadn’t even gone on their first date yet. That was slotted for Sunday. She glanced back down at the scroll and hesitated a long moment before typing out a quick message.

_ ‘Want some company?’ _

It was a good five minutes, the dots indicating that Amity was typing appearing and disappearing several times before a message finally came through. 

_ 'At... my house?’ _

_ 'Well, you’re stuck at home because of your leg right? _

_ “Yes…” _

Luz frowned at the scroll. Maybe that was too soon? She’d never had a girlfriend before and she wasn’t sure what she was doing, really. Was girlfriend even the right word? They hadn't even had a single date yet. She wanted to call Amity her girlfriend though. It was something to think about later anyway. 

_ ‘If you don’t want me to come over it’s okay.’  _ She quickly typed out and sent it. The response came back much quicker. 

_ ‘No, I do!’ _

_ “Are you sure?’ _

_ ‘Yes, you can come over. Do you know how to get here?’ _

After securing her directions, Luz jogged down the stairs to find Eda sitting on the couch, her pot of witch’s wool at her side, and King curled up on the couch next to her. 

“Done pouting?” Eda asked, glancing up at her with up at her with a grin and Luz’s lips puckered. 

“Can I go to Amity’s? She can’t go on the trip because of her leg, so I thought I’d keep her company,” she asked and A wolfish grin spread across Eda’s face. Luz quickly noticed it and her cheeks tinted pink under that knowing grin.

At least that was one thing Lucia didn’t need to worry about, Eda thought to herself. 

“Sure, Kid.” She nodded and with a flick of her wrist, summoned her staff and tossed it to her apprentice. “Don’t do anything I would do!” she warned. 

“I won’t!” Luz called as she hurried out the door. Eda watched her go with a small smile.

“She’s a good kid,” she mumbled to herself, a small smile pulling at her lips as she turned her attention back to her knitting. 

~ ~ 

Lucia slunk quietly through the woods. She hadn’t personally been here, but she knew that the witch was out here somewhere based on what Eda and Lilith had said about this day. 

With a masking glyph, she carefully avoided Hooty and his new ‘playmates’ as she moved through the forest outside the Owl House. She shook her head as she watched the demon pour tea onto the ground and shook her head. She’d missed Hooty but, man, was he weird. 

A loud ringing broke the quiet sounds of the forest, outside the groaning of injured coven members and Lucia paused before following the sound to find Lilith, half-buried in a pile of dirt and debris. 

_ ‘The Emperor demands your presence in the throne room… and there's a bird on your head.’  _

She heard the familiar cold voice and she grit her teeth. Kikimora, Belos’ assistant. Lucia remembered her quite well. Lilith grunted and smacked the compact closed before reaching up and grabbing the little creature. She watched as the witch angrily scarfed it down and made a face. 

In all the years she’d been with Amity, the witch had never once eaten anything alive like she’d witnessed both Clawthorne sisters do. She had to assume it was just a ‘them thing’ rather than a ‘witch thing’ 

Lilith pulled herself out of the dirt, grumbling curses under her breath the entire time. Lucia took a deep breath and let her spell fall, turning visible and stepping out from behind the tree, staff in hand. 

Sharp, teal eyes took notice of her immediately and Lucia watched them flicker to her ears.

“Another human?” she scoffed. “There’s an infestation of you as of late…,” she sneered and Lucia snorted, rolling her eyes.

“Awfully smarmy for someone who just got their butt handed to them by a demon with less intelligence than the leaves stuck in your hair,” Lucia smarted back.

Something flashed behind Lilith’s eyes and predictably she flung up her staff and a blast of blue energy sailed through the air. Lucia quickly jumped out of the way as it sailed past, crackling with energy. 

“I’ve had all I can stand of you humans!” she snarled as more blasts filled the air. Lucia grunted as she hopped on her staff and weaved out of the way between the trees. This was about what she had expected. Lilith had a temper after all.

She zipped out of the way, threading carefully between the tight-knit trees as she dug through one of her pouches and flung out a few fire glyphs, casting blasts of fire that halted Lilith’s attack as she was forced to flash out of the way. 

“I didn’t come here to fight,” Lucia called, peeking out between the foliage at the angry witch. Maybe she could beat the witch,  _ maybe,  _ but that wasn’t what she needed to do right now. She just needed Lilith on their side. Or, at the very least, off Belos’ side. “I just want to talk! I have information you need to hear,” she grunted, jumping out of the way of another shot of magical energy and pressing her back to a tree.

“Why would I possibly care what a human has to say?” she growled, eyes falling on the tree in question and she spun her staff, blue fire roaring to life.

“What about how you’re allergic to spiderbane lilies?” she called out and the sudden electric buzz of magical energy in the air fizzled out with her next words. “Which is why Eda started calling you ‘Lilly’.” 

She carefully peeked around the tree to find the still frowning witch watching her carefully, the grip on her staff was still tight and ready, but there was a flash of something behind her eyes before she scowled again.

“My sister has an annoying penchant for past stories that no longer matter.” Her palisman’s eyes began to glow again and Lucia jumped to capitalize on the moment. 

“Eda didn’t tell me that. You did, about… oh, three years from now?” she hummed aloud and she could feel the loaded silence that followed her statement. “If you don’t believe that, how ‘bout this: I know you put the curse on Eda,” she said and all the noise in the woods died as she dropped her bomb. 

“How… how do you know that?” Her voice was a low hiss but Lucia could still hear it. 

“Like I said, you told me, in the future or, I guess, for me, in the past.” That sounded confusing just coming out of her mouth. 

“What nonsense is this!?” Lilith snapped. 

“Exactly what it sounds like. There's no ‘human infestation’. I'm the same human as before, Eda’s apprentice, from the covention.” 

“The covention?” she repeated incredulously as she eyed the woman that tentatively came out from behind the tree. “You look…. Different…,” she mumbled and it took everything Lucia had not to roll her eyes at the witch, suddenly remembering that her knowledge on humans had been… lacking at best in this time. 

“That’s a word for it… I came back in time, from the future.” 

“I don’t believe you…” she frowned and Lucia did snort this time. She expected as much and had come prepared. 

“You don’t have to believe me, I can prove it to you.” She reached into one of her pouches and pulled out a glass bottle full of bright, neon orange elixir and held it up before tossing it across the distance to Lilith, who caught it and eyed her warily before examining it closely. 

“A truth elixir…” she mumbled to herself before turning her eyes back to Lucia.

“I’m sure I don’t have to tell you how those work. I drink it and nothing but the truth can come out of my mouth. You don’t want to believe me, but it’s true and I’m prepared to prove it.” 

They stared at each other for a long moment before Lilith tossed it back.

“Drink it then…,” she commanded and Lucia did just that, guzzling down the vile and bitter-tasting liquid. She could feel it taking effect almost immediately and Lilith could see it as a hazy glow came over her eyes. 

“What do I need to know, human?” she asked derisively. She doubted whatever this woman had to tell her was of little use to her.

“Belos is lying to you.” The words spilled past her lips even without her consent and Lilith’s eyes widened briefly before narrowing and a sneer pulled at her lips. 

“What is he lying about?” she demanded.

“Curing Eda, he has no intention of curing her. He only wants her portal to the human world.” Lucia’s mouth moved on its own almost and Lilith’s eyes widened.

“No, you’re lying, he promised!” she snapped and Lucia frowned.

“I can’t lie, you know that, but he does. He’s using you to get to her and her portal. That’s all he wants. Don’t be stupid, Lilith, you’re smarter than that!” Lucia regretted that the moment it came out of her mouth but the potion was doing its magic on her and her thoughts came out freely. 

Lilith snarled and slammed her staff into the ground, a blast of magic suddenly filed the clearing and sent Lucia stumbling backward. She threw up her staff and a barrier popped into existence around her as the bright blue light blinded her. It faded a few seconds later and when she blinked her eyes open she found herself standing alone in the clearing and frowned, letting the barrier drop.

“Well, that could have gone better,” she mumbled to herself tiredly. 

She walked back to the house and stepped inside to find Eda sitting on the couch carefully knitting the cloak while King dozed beside her. 

“I’m back,” she announced, making the older witch look up and notice her disheveled appearance. 

“What the heck happened to you?” she cocked a brow at the human witch.

“I was having a ‘chat’ with Lilith,” she grumbled and Eda snorted. 

“Yeah, that looks like how Lily ‘chats’ alright,” Eda scoffed. Lucia grunted in response.

“Luz still in her room?” she asked and Eda shook her head. 

“Naw, squirt went to see the future Mrs. squirt,” she said distractedly as she pulled at a thread of the cloak. 

“She went to see Amity?” Lucia blinked at that as Eda nodded.

“Yeah, I let her take Owlbert so she could pout to the tiniest Blight about us not letting her go on the trip to that bonehead’s castle.” 

Lucia’s fingers drummed her staff anxiously as a thought came to her.

_ ‘She wouldn’t…’ _

She grimaced as she remembered she was dealing with herself here.

“She would…,” she mumbled aloud as the realization smacked her fully in the face before she turned and ran back out the door.

“I have to go stop myself from doing something stupid!” she yelled out as she sprinted out the door and jumped onto her staff.

“Have fun,” Eda mumbled absently as she continued knitting.

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to Skiddows, Wardides, and RainbowBuddy for their contributions to this project.


End file.
